Sailing is learning by doing. You might read a dozen of the best books about rigging. Knowing the names of the lines and associated hardware is fundamental to communicating as crew. But this doesn’t mean you can operate the boat efficiently.

That’s okay. Don’t worry about it.

Be prepared, however, to be thinking about how to do it better. All the time. Consciously, as when your mind is so obsessively figuring out how to do it better that you can’t fall asleep. Or, unconsciously, when a better way just comes to you. This happened to Skipper Jack, who sent me this email the morning after returning from a short sail.

Don’t know why these simple ideas occurred to me, but thought I’d write them down so one of us might remember to try them next time we’re sailing.

Topping Lift After raising the mains’l, loosen the topping lift only enough to bring the full weight of the boom down on the leach of the sail, but no more. Then, if we have to release the haylard later on to reef, the topping lift will be tight enough to hold the boom w/out your having to go forward
to tighten, then loosen it again.

Gybe with the main sheet It might be easier to control the boom gybe with the main sheet (only one line) than with the traveller (two lines). E.g., sheet in the main, center the traveller, gybe while easing the main sheet, and
only then move the traveller over to the new lee side.