Crew assignments

[DrB]

The reason why you don't want to load the lazy sheets up before you actual get ready to tack is if you need to quickly blow the jib for say a duck or to spill off wind in case of a super gust. Having the lazy sheet loaded up may not let jib/genny blow out. I know people do it all the time and I do it often in very light wind conditions, but if there is any breeze, I don't.

If you must load up the lazy sheet, put only one wrap on it, and not in the ST jaws.

As far as the jib trimmer sitting to windward, if you're close hauled, the jib is trimmed for close hauled sailing and the helm drives the boat to the tell tells. The trimmer shouldn't be trimming the jib too much. It's better to have the weight high, than have the weight low waiting for the possible occasional tweak trim. When I trim the main on a J105, the jib trimmer leans windward of the cockpit centerline against the companionway or just sits foward of me towards the windward rail depending on the heel angle. The primaries on the J-105 are on the cabin top.

DrB

[AdamLein]

The jib trimmer should be able to handle both winches if he's practiced. Tacking takes a couple of seconds. The lazy winch should already have one wrap on it with plenty of slack in the standing end.

At "ready about", the jib trimmer takes the sheet off the cleat and gets ready to throw it off the winches (I'm only assuming this is possible on a self-tailing winch; no experience there).

In mid-tack when the jib luffs, the jib trimmer throws it off the winch and switches to the other side. He doesn't get in your way; you go under the tiller when switching sides, not over it. The main sheet trimmer stays forward of the traveler during the tack and preferably moves up to sit on the windward gunwale.

As the boat comes head to wind, the jib trimmer switches sides with everybody else and does the initial trim, then briefly goes up to put the first turn on the new weather winch (or asks the main guy to do this).

This is how we've done it on my boat, and how we did it on other boats I've crewed on when we only had one jib trimmer.

[jarcher]

Originally Posted by AdamLein

The jib trimmer should be able to handle both winches if he's practiced.

.
.
.

At "ready about", the jib trimmer takes the sheet off the cleat and gets ready to throw it off the winches (I'm only assuming this is possible on a self-tailing winch; no experience there).

In mid-tack when the jib luffs, the jib trimmer throws it off the winch and switches to the other side. He doesn't get in your way; you go under the tiller when switching sides, not over it. The main sheet trimmer stays forward of the traveler during the tack and preferably moves up to sit on the windward gunwale.

A variant of this might work best. I think the common theme here (and someone said this) is that I need to move my butt aft to get out of their way. No one can sit forward of the traveler unless they go up on deck or down the companion way, so we're going to have to work that out. If the helm was a wheel there would not be an issue, so if I can learn to swing the tiller up out of my way through a tack we might be fine.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, I'll show them to everyone and see what we come up with.