Hi Duncan
Decided to give sailing between the Mulberry bits a miss on the day (too scared to go near). Both cats had righting lines around the mast (just an afterthought to tie one on Andy's because he hadn't raced a cat before and it was a bit breezy. He is a bit younger and fitter than I but didn't mention if he used his - I guess he did.
Can't remember why I untied the knots in my righting line but it might have been to make it easier to take around the boat to use from different angles without it being caught up anywhere. When I used loops I had them attached to the righting line and adjustable in height. Somehow I always ended up trying to use them from between the hulls, in front of the front beam (because that was where I was). The end result was always, particularly if the boat had any forward motion, to end up with my legs uselessly underneath the tramp as I pushed.
I have a method of getting hold of the trapeze handle when in sport mode but this is still a struggle and I've been successful only once in getting aboard thus. So I am left reconsidering your suggestion but having toe loops at a height where they would be useful when the righting line is dangling over the hull on the windward side. This way the hull side should act to brace the lifting leg against. With one or two knots between the mast base and the edge of the deck I might be able to get high enough to grab the toe strap when mounting in front of the shroud. (Or am I supposed to slip my foot in the loop as the boat comes up and come in over the new, leeward side?
)
In the meantime, I still have the old fashioned in-beam righting line. This is pretty useless (I understand) as a righting line per se but could be used to form a loop between the end of the beam and the shroud base to put a foot in. It would also be easily height-adjustable in use
and presumably class legal.
Other than this, Erling's method is best - DON'T CAPSIZE!
