I sent this to a crew-member coming over from dinghy sailing. It's good.

yeah , good - when letting off sheet or easing why is the "guide" hand placed on the rope around barrel ?

to stop wrapping ?

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normster said..
yeah , good - when letting off sheet or easing why is the "guide" hand placed on the rope around barrel ?

to stop wrapping ?

It's just a brake. You can control the speed that the rope is released by gently holding the rope against the barrel. It's not a universally popular technique for safety reasons.

Thanks,

Great video. Without wanting to make a meal of it the issue of slowly and carefully and controllably easing winched sheets (jib, kite) or braces or halyards - for the latter mainly jib the kite halyard is usually a set and forget till drop and the main halyard is hoisted to a pre-determined mark on the halyard and then tensioned more with cunningham if needed - seems to be not taught too well in sailing schools. It has taken us more than the expected time to teach the bear away at the top mark to go to the wing mark with jib easing process before the kite is hoisted - too often the jib sheet is just let off completely which is a total no no. Of course when the kite is set the jib can usually be dropped but the jib easing out and drop whole process must be smooth so that the jib shape follows the broadening apparent wind angle. Similarly newbies seem to take a while to grasp the concept that the kite brace must not be "lost" - especially in any winds which are >10kts. The result is kite pole wrapped around the forestay and the potential break of both.