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From: Steve Rienhart
Date: 18 Aug 1998
Time: 17:55:58
Remote Name: dynamic47.pm09.mv.best.com
I must take exception to your use of the hiking straps, as the only significant part of your body left inboard of the gunnels were your knees. This would probably also be a good time to remind you that in a world of owner-drivers, you probably wouldn't want to race against me with hiking straps equipped and used in the fashion that you have them. I do fall into the category of "a tad younger and a lot heftier".
As for the slack aft portion of the lifeline, if they are slack" it is fine. Yours lay on the deck, so they seem to be more of a feeble formality to claim that you have lifelines than they are actually "slack". John Liebenberg has rigged his in the fashion that I would rig mine, with approximately 9" of slack in the middle of the lifeline from the taught position. In that fashion, the slack lifeline rests on your back and holds you in, while still providing a true lifeline. That is how I had rigged my previous boat, and had no problems with it.
I do agree with you that the continuous, taught lifeline tends to bounce the driver back into the boat, and something should be done. Where I depart from your apparent viewpoint is the usage of hiking staps, as I feel that will generate a new level of usage rules and the concomitant protests "Gentlemen hiking" in the Etchells fleet is a ludicrous set of class rules violated by most competitors, and the hiking straps that are allowed by the Moore 24 fleet have restrictions on their usage that render them ineffective to bother installing. Perhaps a rule allowing the slack aft lifeline, with a "maximum slack" rule, would be the way to go.