Cats may have nine lives, but a sailor is not supposed to have nine fingers. Every year, however, we hear of instances of crushed hands, lost fingers, and major damage from poor line handling techniques.
Technological advances have greatly reduced the amount of sail and line handling required of today’s sailors.
Sail areas are increasingly concentrated in a few, large sails, rather than broken up into several smaller ones. Hydraulic furlers, asymmetric spinnakers, in-mast reefing and self-tacking headsails all mean that we need less rope to manage our sails.
In fact, rope is notable in its absence from the sleek cockpits of new yachts, which can often seem like a lines-free area.
The risk of this is that out of sight can mean out of mind and, while the amount of line handling on modern yachts
