My recommendation is to use dogbones. Adjust the forward dogbone to just touch the deck. Adjust the aft dogbone so the [b]top[/b] ring just touches the deck.

The rationale is that no further adjustment is required on the water:

[*]The crew
[*]uses the forward bottom ring upwind, and [*]uses the aft bottom ring downwind (when the crew is well aft).[/LIST][*]The skipper
[*]uses the aft top ring upwind, and [*]sits on the hull downwind.[/LIST][/LIST] This way, the aft trap wire can be used by the skipper (upwind) and crew (well aft downwind) without adjustment. If it gets rough, the crew switches to the top rings, and the skipper (upwind) moves aft for more clearance (since he will want to move aft as the wind builds, anyway).

For a novice, these settings will seem 6" too low, but they are not, since you should not be on the wire if you're not flying a hull 6" above the water. ;-)

If you want soft dogbones, some have been known to make them from spectra line passed through nylon tubing (from your local hardware store).