Some years ago, we sailed a TheMightyHobie18 with wings from time to time. I liked the boat and the fact that you could trap from the wings or just sit their side by side in strong winds and feel safe. At some point I asked myself, what will happen if we let fly a hull too high, not even capsize. I would slip down of the wings, because my feet are not locked on a foot rail, fall down two and a half meter on the other wing - a solid metal tube, not nice. It just gave us wrong feeling of security. On the other side while trapping you are thethered to the boat. I lost more than once my stand in the trapez, but I never un-hooked. The trapez prevents you also to fall on the wrong side of the boat after capsize. My personal view is that one should always be locked to the boat, by the wire or footstrap or whatever, off-shore as in-shore. Must get a habbit like wearing a vest.
For some reason I've had trap wires fail twice in the last few months, still trying to figure that out.
Maintain always your boat, check your rigging regulary. If your trap wires fail, you should ask yourself which wire will fail next, so I would say at least check the wires, if not replace them. Where did it fail? Wire or shackle? Maybe you should change the shop who made it. Maybe you need stronger material or gauge.
Cheers,
Klaus
