Actually, I was answering Maugan, because I know his girlfriend sails with him a lot.

Maybe somebody knows the reason why almost all cats have been designed so the tiller extension has to be passed behind the mainsheet. My theory is that before the days of adjustable tiller extensions, all the boats came with a long, long tiller extension. If you tried to cross the boat with it in front, you would have had to raise it way up in the air to get it past the shroud on one side, lower it down to get it under the sail, and then raise it way up again on the other side to get it past the other shroud. It was a heck of a lot easier to pass it around the back where there are no obstructions, not to mention no passengers in the way.