Light Schooner Sheet handling

The jib sheet can be set and cleated, then left (fine adjustment only is needed).

The main and fore sheets need to be cleated (not locked) to work properly. Again, very different from a dinghy where sheets are never, never tied. The best procedure is to sheet the booms a bit slack of where they should be, cleat the sheets, then take the rope from off the boom. This means your hand becomes another block on the sheet, and suddenly Bolger's rigging design makes sense. In a looming knockdown, just letting go of the sheet and allowing it to snap back to along the boom will often be enough. If it's not, it still gives time for (a) the helmsman to put her helm down and/or (b) the cleated part of the sheet to be loosened.

The staysail sheet is simply held. You'd have to be very brave, or foolish, to cleat it. This is the most docile sail, but also when sheeted doubles the power of everything else. You want to be able to let this one go totally, instantly.