About this time last year I was crewing on a Hobie20 and had just taken the spinnaker down. I improperly hooked into the trap for the upwind leg and pretty much did the Nestea plunge right off the side of the boat. The wind was blowing about 10 knots, so it was very managable for the skipper but still pretty choppy. He did a quick stop and tacked back around to pick me up. On the first attempt, he got really close and stopped but I found that I could not swim for crap with all the gear on (ie. shoes). We were able to communicate so we decided that on his second run he would run right over me and I would grab the dolphin striker. It worked like a charm (that time). I'm not sure I would want to try it with just any skipper. I don't think it would work in any significant breeze either. It took some serious skill for him to sail that slowwwwww and right over me. It also takes a little bit of dexterity to climb over the front beam. I was able to pull up in the coner of the beam and the hull and grab the front trap handle.

My questions for those of you doing Tybee and other long races with tethers are: How do you manage all the extra line everywhere? Do you switch attachment points on each tack?

Thanks for the insight, Jake.

-Rob V.