[quote=prelives]I'm in my 2nd season on a Prindle 16 sailing off the beach in Santa Barbara, CA. The last few weeks I have been getting out on the wire solo and am starting to get more comfortable out there and making the transition in and out more smoothly. Today the wind was blowing 17-20 knots (according to the local yacht club website) with 2-3 foot seas. I was having a blast and handling it pretty well. I did much better today on tacking in these higher winds after reading about how to do a roll tack on these forums (THANKS!). Last time I went out in about 20 knots and I almost sailed to the channel islands cuz I couldn't come about. Today, I hit a max speed of 20 mph (wore a GPS) and was pretty psyched about it. In these conditions I was afraid to cleat the main sheet, so held it in my hand the whole time. My problem was after about an hour of sailing my hands and forearms were super fatigued from holding on to the line so tightly. After an hour I was forced to come in because I could hardly hold the line any longer. I tried wrapping it around my hand, but this didn't allow me to let out line quickly in a gust. Is there a technique to holding the line in such a way that it takes some stress off the hands and forearms? I've read on here that one should not cleat the main when out on the wire in heavy winds, so I would think that everyone would run into this problem, but I know people sail for many hours at a time, so there must be some skill to this other than just getting stronger. Help?
Thanks in advance![/quote]
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