Christmas Presents

Originally posted by mozzy

The 800s had a rule that the crew couldn't play the main. That change is probably more significant than whether the sheet comes from the boom or the deck. Having a deck jammer made life a little easier for the helm, but with the crew carrying the sheet having it straight off the boom opens up space in the boat. 

Helming on a trapeze you can't 'hand over hand' sheet as the trapeze line gets in the way plus the geometry of the extension doesn't allow the sweep of your tiler hand anyway. So you can't sheet as fast as in a hiking dinghy, and that's in boat when in many conditions you need to move more! Having the crew take the sheet really gets around this problem.
I think tacks are faster too as you can hit the wire much sooner as a helm. Getting the weight out to bear away and power up on the new tack is more important than role. Having a mainsheet to play as you clip on a step out as a helm makes that difficult. 

Having said all that, you need an excellent crew who has a good feel for sheeting and is also able to wire to wire tack whilst carrying the sheet. The crew will be in control of mode changing much more than the helm, so it's a very different way of working. 

Edited by mozzy - 01 Jan 18 at 10:26am