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Main Sheet Trick No. 1 for Tacking

One problem that I faced when sailing was that when tacking, my main sheet would get tangled on my leg/foot, and as a result I am unable to pull in the main sheet after I complete my tack.

So, this came up on my feed, and I thought it was good to deposit here.

This is the proposed solution that I will try out:
  1. Temporarily hold main sheet with tiller hand while the "sheet-hand" loosely holds the rope
  2. With the "sheet-hand", stretch out approximately 6 feet of excess main sheet by raising up the hand way above one's head, and then depositing the excess main sheet on one's knee/thigh, clear of one's feet
  3. Revert to normal hands position ("sheet-hand" firmly on main sheet and tiller hand on tiller)
  4. Pull the sheet in, close-haul and prepare for tack
  5. Tack
    1. Pull hand up after heading on the new tack and before switching hands
    2. Switch hands and sheet in for close-haul sail trim



In another video, the person demonstrated that in the event that the main sheet gets tangled on one's legs, it is okay to let go of the sheet from one's hand and concentrate on finishing the tack first, while holding the main sheet in position with one's feet. After completing the tack (with the tiller centred and then switching hands), can one then bend over to pick up the main sheet and work on disentangling it from one's legs. I realised this was what I had been doing, except for the "holding on with one's feet/legs" part. I think perhaps this is one area which I can improve my smoothness and speed too - retrieving the sheet after completing the tack. I realised that I would have problems keeping the rudder tiller centred while moving my hands about in managing the sheet though, so I'm not quite sure how to settle that. Probably will be a discussion for another time.
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