Regarding the chicken line, maybe this thread will help:
http://www.catsailor.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=56820&an=0&page=7

I don't understand what they are doing now as far as chicken lines, and we never used one, but back when we were sailing Hobies, I thought it was just a sort of slack rope from the front beam to the aft beam, and when you were out on the trapeze, you held onto that rope so you wouldn't go flying forward if the boat nosedived. I don't know if it was kept more taut somehow (when you weren't using it) with bungee cord somewhere or what. Like I said, we never used one. But the basic idea is to have a rope attached to the front and back of the boat that you can hold onto to keep from flying forward, or to help hold you to the boat while you are trapezing.

Anyway, that is the general idea and purpose, no matter how it is set up.

Mary:

We only tried in once in the 29 years I have been sailing. After that we just kept the back leg a little flexed and the front stiff. You are ready for a sudden stuff that way. No problem for me and crew when i had one.

Doug

A gal in my sailing club tells about the time, after several weekends of racing where she got some typical scrapes and bruises, she returned to her locker at her health club to find a brochure stuck in the door for a spouse-abuse shelter, with a hand-written note "Please call these people. They CAN help you!"

Has any one tried wearing raquetball eye protectors? Or is there risk of the eye protection causing injury here?

I know someone who sailed wearing a bike helmet. They're light weight and will give you some head protection.

D Ho
TheMightyHobie18 1067

Awhile back when I first took the wings of my 18 I left the pin-down brackets (that are attached to the beam to hull bolts) on so I could put the wings back on quickly. My wife and are were out for sail, she's on the wire, the boat takes a wave and she loses her footing, rotating forward and slamming her upper thigh/hip into the end of the forward beam where the wing bracket was. Left the nastiest multi-colored bruise all up and down her hip and thigh that took a long time to go away. After that I was always worried that she'd have a doctor appointment or something and somebody would notify the authorities for a spouse abuse case... I could just hear the conversation - "it happened sailing", "sure, that's ok, we can still help..."

A little off topic so sorry for the hijak. After a freak accident involving my elbow and my wifes nose...yes it was broken....and no it was on accident, we went to the hospitol where she was repeatedly asked if she needed to talk to someone. Those silly nurses...if anyone in our house is likely to be phisically abused its me, cuz my wife can kick my butt.

no one believes me when i tell them my sweet little 5'1" girlfriend did 2 tours in Iraq as a marine... she has never "unleashed the beast" om me (YET) but i have learned not to take her out on the cat when i am trying new things (like a spinnaker)....

" I could just hear the conversation - "it happened sailing", "sure, that's ok, we can still help..."

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
very similar conversation had my wife when our kid fall on lego cube .doctor isisted and ask her twice what happend, when was asked third time she say to dr. you dont have to make judgeds on others if this is what is happening in your family.he shut up imediatly-the dr.
i hope you understand <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

As kids by brother had fallen off of a cyclone fence and gave himself a good scrape on his back. Two days later while my parents were out of town I broke his arm for him while we were wrestling on their bed. The hospital promptly called the police after his examination. It took a call to our regular pediatrician who said "One of the Casey boys broke his arm? I always wondered how long before one of them broke a limb as much as they rough house." The matter went no further.

Thanks for the reference to F18s, Mary. That system is great for attachment to the rear beam. We always used bungeed Hawaiian style righting lines on H16 and H18s: this is a W arrangement (with knots) on each side of the boat, with the center of the V restrained to the back of the boat with a blocked-bungee return to the front crossbar.
There has to be a reference to this somewhere in the archives.
This Hawaiian Style chicken line saved a lot of unhappy crews, by limiting pitchpoles back in the day of big, superb racing fleets in Florida, and nasty bruises too, trust me. When your crew trusts you (note for Doug Snell in TX), they continue to crew.