Has anyone tried these? or are likely to in the near future, could be intersting <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfJbX4Mmfs
They are basically lengths of carbon tube with the trap hooks at the bottom.
http://www.c2marine.co.uk/trapeze_handle.php
which make it easier to clip onto after tacking-gybing. However, I wouldn't trust myself in big seas to hold and clip at the same time!

Those contender sailors make that look way too easy for my liking.

I have seen similar sort of things on skiffs and contenders. It probably does make hooking and unhooking easier. The skiffies always tend to hook up after they are out some cat sailors do as well, so it helps control the hook with one hand.

I would be worried about the extra wieght and windage on a cat tho.

Really cool find Mark!

Wouldn't actually be too hard to make those from scratch. Just a suitable length of carbon tube and a welded S/S ring. The end caps should be reasonably easy to source for a stock size tube. A bit of butchery and the trap wire running right through the tube onto the ring. Et voila!

I have seen these on a lot of the A cats. A couple of the Italians that charted some boats from me at one of the Coconut Grove Midwinters showed me first.

It does work well to keep the trap from wrapping the side stay if located close, and does keep the handle from spinning around making it easier to grab.

The large carbon tube on the video is a bit of an overkill though. A short piece of polly tubing and a pair of the small parrell balls does the same thing at a fraction of the cost, and getting bonked in the face with a carbon tube on those days where it is not trap weather yet would be a pain.