Reading Catamaran Racing: For the 90's, it states 'A good way to keep the mainsheet on the boat is to tie a bungy cord across the trampoline about halfway between the fore and aft beams and through the loop of the mainsheet. (this is assuming your traveller line and mainsheet are continuous.)'
Currently I have separate mainsheet and traveller which are about a metre longer than required, when on the trap I run them both over my forward thigh with at least a metre overhang dangling in the water to hold them in place. As a novice sailor it appears to work well as everything is at hand when needed, I do have some concerns about pitchpoling in that it is easy to be tangled up and as I often sail alone it increases the danger. Also the extra length causes tangles and the odd capsize when things go wrong.

Anybody use the continuous line idea? I am currently splicing a split tail for my traveller and I'm thinking of giving it a go.

Things that appear to be negatives are:
1. Sheets will not sit naturally in place while on trapeze, will have to maintain grip due to bungy cord, harder to change between mains and traveller.
2. Loose colour coding to differentiate between main sheet and traveller - unless I do end to end splice in middle.

Positives
1. No more lines trailing the boat
2. Potentially safer?

continuous lines are nice for the trav/mainsheet. I haven't done the bungee idea because it would need to be a relatively tight/strong bungee to take up a meaningful amount of slack to make it worthwhile. Besides, seems like it would be another thing to get caught on on the tramp.

Just make sure that the back of the tramp is laced up tight with no gaps. If the sheet drages in the water; flick it back on the tramp and then it cannot wash away as you are always holding it.

I have always used a continuos line, less sheet to keep track of

It's difficult to know the best lenght for your style of sailing. Tie the traveler line and main sheet together until you figure it out.

A nice plastic loop which goes around the main/traveler line works great when this loop is attached with a bungee cord that brings it to the center of the boat. My A-class has this ring in the center of the trampoline and the other side of the bungee cord holds the righting lines (under the boat) in place. I have almost no fight against the lines and rarely have it dragging long in the water.

Regarding length, Rick Bliss had a great system. Every time he sailed, he cut off one inch. By the time the lines got too short, they were worn out. Then add 4 inches and repeat (but only cut once per month). Eventually every line gets to an optimal point.

Funny you should bring this up! browsing the a-class worlds site yesterday, there is a picture of Glen Ashby on his boat and you can see a ring holding his main to the tramp. 5 times world champ cant be wrong!!

That setup Ashby is shown with is the "Main Tamer" option offered on the Capricorn. I used it for the first time at the 2008 US Nationals with Goodall. The ring is tied to a bungee that passes through a grommet in the tramp. I was dubious about the mid-boom system, but I'm a believer now.

What keeps the Ratchet block from pulling the tramp up and down during puffs? Seems like it would be like using a bungee cord for a mainsheet. What is under the tramp to support the block?

On the Cap, it is a reinforced section of the tramp and a SS eyestrap with a pair of wide washers. The tramp does "tent" up when you're sheeting, as well as some bowing in the boom. At first, I couldn't take my eyes off of it, thinking it looked imminently catastrophic. It wasn't, though, and I eventually was able to tear my eyes away and focus on puffs again. It did not feel spongy and I found myself sheeting the main harder than I ever did before. It was pretty cool. Can't wait to hand it off to my crew (evil laugh...).

I have that setup on my 2000 Boyer Mark IV (though it probably didn't come stock). I can't wait to get my hands on my new Ashby mainsail in a week....and though I DO have a cape, I doubt the mainsail alone will do much much more than eliminate a mental excuse.

Can someone explain how tacking works with that system?
The idea is that you don't hand it over to the helm while tacking right?
What does the crew do during the tack?
Do you still get on board between the frontbeam and shroud?
How do you pass the sheet around the ratchet? (Assuming its still connected to the traveller).

That's the thing - you don't pass it around anything. When skip's ready to tack, crew goes across the boat holding the sheet the whole time, hooks up, and out you go with a final little trim once you're out. Skip still has to pass the tiller 'round the back, but no sheeting worries - just drive! It seemed like the amount of sheet dumped as the crew crossed the boat was just right to get through the tack - I didn't spend any time fumbling, I just held what I had and touched up the trim once I was set and could look up and forward again from the wire. In the breeze, Greg handed me the sheet right off the start line and didn't take it back until we were ready to 'round a-pin.

can you cleat it?

Ditto on can you cleat it?

JW , do you feel you lose anything in the puffs with the tramp flexing, after you/we spend so much on zero strtech lines?
I would like to go with something like this on my A cat(had boom sheeting) but I'd like to be able to cleat and not sweat the tramp flex thing. I tried an old jib block/cleat in the tramp position(has a padeye and a small backing plate) but it flopped around too much and lifted the tramp alot(even with a ton of tramp tension). I definely needed more refinement to the system but just went with a normal block set-up.
Appreciate your and others experienced input,
Todd

Ahhhh, yes. The question is often asked, "can you cleat it."

NO! Now sheet in! And quit whimpering, you're distracting me!

By Wednesday afternoon, after having either the mainsheet or the spin sheet in my hands and on the wire for something like eight or nine races, my hands were feeling it bigtime, even with gloves. Something to get used to... or stop crewing for great drivers.

Tawd - that tramp flex didn't take anything away at all. It was "tented" up when sheeted in, but once I had tension on it, it didn't flex more in the puffs (which were big on the first two days). Most of the time, I was easing a bit in the hard puffs anyway, and squeezing back on as the puff passed. Greg gave me the new trim mantra "half as much, twice as often." One reason I was completely nackered by mid-week and was very grateful the breeze dropped for Thursday.

pretty much kills the idea from a solo with spin POV! I tried yelling at myself when crewing for myself but just get annoyed with myself and want to drop myself as crew or throw myself off the boat.

I'm converting the 20 over a midboom sheeting system but there will actually be a cleat on the flip flop block on the boom.

Either that, or it will be a dual ended system so when going downwind the crew lets go of their end so it stops at a stopper ball and then I cleat the back off.

You people cleat your mains going upwind!?

One of the things that made sailing more fun for me was making that jump and adjusting the angle of the cleat so I could cleat the main when sailing solo. very easy to cleat and uncleat. It isn't like I cleat it and drop it. I understand the potential danger but in OH CRAP situation heading up works well to depower also.
If I sailed all the time and was able to maintain the strength in my arms then maybe I wouldn't find it so useful.

That's fine for marks but... Even On my A I sail more than just marks also, so cleating is important to me.I ain't as tough a crew as the SQUIRREL,I can admit that. I had also thought of the double ended sheet. Just use the terminal end down the boom.

I like that "half as much, twice as often.", that ,succintly, says what I've tried to tell alot of my crews.That will get used, along with my new V-40 talk "DAAPLOY ZE JAANNNAAAKKKEERRR" ala JC. Now I just gotta sail like 'em .
Tawd