I read on Lexis Nexis' team site about running the skippers trap line bungie thru the aft beam. Des this help at all with reducing fatigue on the driver. The additional effort required to stay on the back of the bus is a real pain. I am well aware that the angles are all wrong on the trapeeze wires already to make staying back an easy task, I just cant imagine that the added pull of the bungee helps. Does moving the bungee aft, thru the cross beam, help or is this stritcly a convienience factor for the driver?
It helps some to move the trap wire and bungee aft.
It helps more when your torso is just about in line with the tramp, of more horizontal, but when sailing in chop or larger seas, you tend to be in the water more if your winward hull is too low.
Then there are the 'keepers',chiken lines, call them what you will, which really help when the boat decelerates as is stuffing into a wave.
A big part of moving the trap line aft is to keep your weight aft more of the time. You don't want to gybe and have to go forward in big waves to get to your trap. The same holds true for the crew's trap. That is why it is moved aft to the "old" skippers location. Also, since most of the Worrell boats run more rake than you would run around the buoys, it does make it a little easier to stay aft, BUT you still need chicken lines and foot straps to stay in place not if, but when you stuff it.
During one leg of the Worrell, we were doing ~18-20 mph single trapped. We went down into a large wave (probably ~2ft bigger than most everything else we saw that day) and there was no way out. I was back behind the rear beam with both feet in straps w/o a chicken line....BIG mistake! The chicken line was too short for me to use and I wish I would have adjusted it. I ended up hugging the spin pole... the bows recovered, but w/o the weight on the wire, be went over.