No matter what level of sailor is on board, nobody can avoid constant contact with ropes. YACHT explains the basics for beginners and occasional sailors in a series.
Handing over mooring ropes, taking up cleats, shooting out halyards - the list of tasks for fellow sailors on board is inextricably linked to the ubiquitous "ropes", as inexperienced crews sometimes call lines. Time and again, more or less major mistakes can be observed when handling the ropes, such as when a crew member tries to throw a dew punch ashore in one piece. Often enough, the bunch ends up in the water instead of on the jetty, or the man ashore finds the pile of rope to be a twisted mess that is not easy to cover - apart from the "pleasure" of having perhaps 10 or 15 metres of wet rope flung in front of his nose.
A line that has not been rigged properly comes undone in the back box, and when the shore line is needed, all you find is a lump of rope. Or the loose line can't be hung up properly to dry because the crew doesn't know how to do it. One thing in advance: the end of a line is called a rope, whereas in sailing parlance an end is a line ...
What else should guests on board be able to do?
