Trapezing and biceps bruising

I've never had a Hobie with traps before now with my 18. We (me and my crew) got the 18 out in some really good conditions yesterday that basically required that we stayed out on the traps almost all day (first time we REALLY got to use the traps). WHAT FUN!!!! It made me wish I would have had traps on my 16 back in the day...

On to the problem: After we got back in to the ramp and started taking things down, I noticed both arms had bruising/scraping (no skin breaking) on the inside of my biceps about mid way between the elbow and shoulder. Before we got too far into the take down, I did some checking to find out where the bruising may have come from. From the best that I could tell, it seems to have come from the trap lines, most likely when I was adjusting the main sheet. After doing some searching, I couldn't even find any comments or references to this happening to other people. My crew did not have this problem. The 'injury' is just superficial, it doesn't hurt and I don't even notice it when I don't look at it so I could just accept and deal with it. I'm more concerned with what this will do to my Zhik hydrophobic fleece top when I start wearing it. If it bruises me (i usually don't bruise easily), I suspect it will wreck the expensive top quickly.

My spreader bar sits just barely above my belt-line. I keep each arm on the respective side of the trap line. I stand with my aft leg almost right at the rear cross bar and my front leg about half to two-thirds to the skippers trap bungee hole. I often find myself moving the sheet to the tiller hand while I re-grip to tighten the sheet (don't like cleating the sheet, safety). I think this sheet moving MAY have been the culprit, but cannot say for sure. Is this a common skipper issue? Any ideas how it can be prevented or what I might be doing wrong? Am I right that it's happening when I switch sheet hands to sheet in?

Unrelated to the injury, but still on the trap subject: While turning into the wind, I frequently find that the boat tends to throw me into the crew. I suspect this is a common problem that I just haven't learned to deal with yet. How do I manage this other than being really gentile turning into the wind (not always possible)? I tried leaning WAY to the aft of the boat. This seemed to make the trap want to pull me out and around the crew, rather than directly into him.

Thanks
Kyrle

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Standard Hobie 18

Be gentle with the helm. Sudden turns are dangerous. Keep your forward leg braced straight and the aft leg bent. You maybe have to get the upper body more upright for sheeting. When laid out... I could see interference maybe causing your arm to hit the trap line when sheeting

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Never had an issue like that. I'd suspect that it's the way you're shuffling the sheet back and forth that's forcing you to move at awkward angles and slap your arm continually against the trap wire. I wonder if it's the trap wire or the bungee cord that you're coming up against... but your position seems about right. I usually have my feet about 2 feet apart, standing just forward of the aft crossbar. I'd recommend using the cam to cleat the mainsheet, at least when trying to sheet in large amounts. If the cam cleat is functioning properly, it's easy enough to uncleat it at any point. I've never had an issue uncleating my mainsheet. In heavy wind, the only way I've ever been able to sheet in is to let the cleat hold the sheet while I get a new grip on the line to sheet in more. I sort of "lay" the sheet on my knee so I can get a new grip without needing my other hand. My mainsheet is set up so that it pretty much automatically feeds through the "jaws" and cleats whenever I sheet in, so I'd have to purposely uncleat it after sheeting in.

With the turning into the wind question, I'd recommend widening your stance and/or leaning back just before turning and being a little more smooth on the tiller. My crew and I tend to come in off the wire just before tacking, so I'm not usually turning into the wind on the wire except for minor course adjustments. I think that's the easiest approach, and you can pinch a little or let the mainsheet out a little to manage the heel while coming in off the wire before the tack. It may be faster (for racing) to try and come in off the wire DURING the tack, but I think that's just a lot to manage all at once.

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Mike

'79 H18 standard 'Rocketman II' sail #14921 RIP
'78 H18 (unnamed) sail #14921
'08 H16 sail #114312
'97 H21SC sail #238