Tarpezing a dart 18

I have never trapezed before so I'm looking for some tips on how to do it solo including the best way to wear the harness ie tight loose etc. Also how do you know when it's not windy enough to use the trapeze?
Cheers
Owen

Fair comment always best to see how its done, but some basics...
The harness should be tight, and personal assets carefully located where they won't be crushed.
You should keep your front leg straight and rear leg bent with your front leg pointing at the mast.
Initially it will probably pay to brace your foot against the shroud. Start by placing front foot against shroud, leaving rear leg dragging across boat. Straighten front leg, keeping at an angle so the leg is pointing at the mast, so not at a right angle to the hull. When rear foot can be lifted onto gunwhale do so.

Cheers guys.
The harness I have is a old hook type that has the rubber bit at the hook to stop it unclipping. Looking on the Internet some people seem to recommend removing it due to the chance of getting the hook caught on some thing. Is this less likley to happen with the dart?

I'd leave the spike - if you are in and out a lot in mixed conditions it should prevent the ring from falling off the hook and also helps you feel that the ring is on the hook when you are not looking.

Be careful though, if you are sailing solo on the coast, your boat can end up out of swimming distance from you if you fall off - even if it does capsize the wind can catch the tramp and push it faster than you can swim.

For this reason - ALWAYS take a phone out with you, it won't be the first time the RNLI have re-introduced a cat sailor to his craft... (a member of my sailing club has done it twice in the past couple of years and has paid handsomely each time with crates of beers for the crews!). As long as you do this it's perfectly safe ;-)

Matt

I went out on a Tornado Catamaran last year, and the way I was told to trapeze off of it was to hook on, slide backwards off of the hull and then push yourself out once the ring was taking your whole weight. It took a few goes for me but it seemed to work well. You should use the side of the hull to put your feet on, don't try and put them on the deck normally. Make sure the harness is tight enough to stop the hook moving about too much, but not so tight it squashes your gonads. You'll know when it's not windy enough to trapeze when you don't have to go out on the wire to keep the boat from heeling over too much, although you won't get pitched in and have to boat capsize on top of you if you misjudge this, catamarans are very stable.