Line Load Litigation

[Ian McColgin]

Just had to gang in on one of my pet peeves - I loath colour coded lines. It is every bit as easy to learn by position and every line should have it's place, so the colour coding only helps a little.

I have a friend who festooned his Wianno Sr with all sorts of neon horrors - "Pull the fuscia rope" instead of "Trim the lift."

"Not the pink line, dummy. The faded red line . . . "

He even went for red and green spinnaker sheets and put the red on the starboard side. You see what I mean.

With new crew, it's easy. Give a person one job. Intelligent breaking down and a few minutes of drill work so well that often a crew of people who have never been afloat make a better crew than a few jokers who think they know everything.

Rant over.