Just as long as you don't ease 10 feet of it you can let out enough to not round up and not hurt your mast.

I also let out the traveler, but it depends on the wind of how much I let out. I'm not good yet, so in higher winds, I let out on the traveler almost as much as when I'm setting the spin...which means all the way down. Again, I'm probably being to conservative in doing this, so that means you'll be a little slow.



I think the biggest trick is to find the groove where you can let out on both enough and the boat won't round up and as you do turn up into the wind to go, that you aren't sheeted in too much, that's where you'll usually loose it and capsize. At least from what I have seen....

I do steer with my foot...here's how I do it....


One knee on the tramp, the other knee with the foot on the tramp. Put the tiller on the top of the boat, put your foot that is with the knee in the tramp on top of the tiller. Your steering isn't precise, but it's better than not having any steering at all. And, you have enough steering so you can control where you want the boat to go. This works snuffing and setting....


Is that clear as mud?



One thing that I have been told time and time again, always have the tiller in one hand and the sheet in the other or at least the two of them together in one hand. Us singlehanders, that's kind of hard to do. So, the next best thing to do is sticking the tiller under butt or something while you are cleaning up the tramp for example.