[Public-List] topping lifts

[gordon white via Public-List]

     O.K., I'm going to reveal my ignorance here. I have been sailing 
since 1942, not only on my boats, but with a number of other sailors on 
other boats, but I have never seen a topping lift un-hooked from the 
boom while sailing.  Now I once had a gaff-rigged schooner that had no 
topping lifts, but on marconi-rigged sloops the topping lift has always 
remained in place.

     It keeps the boom from hitting my dodger (or my head) when coming 
about and has other uses, mostly involving safety. Attempting to release 
and re-attach a lift even in a near-calm, strikes me as hazardous. I 
have a woven dacron topping lift that does not seem to hazard the roach 
of the main.


     Have I been sadly in error these 75 years??


Gordon White

Brigadoon II