Leave your cellphone in the car and have your PFD on.

Laszlo

 Cleating a dory mainsheet is usually considered not so good an idea...but if you must, dont use a horn or jam cleat but use a cam cleat with no fairlead so you can pull the line up vertically to quickly release...better yet is no cleat and use a ratchet block on the boom if you goal is to make sheeting easier on your hands....or, if you are trying to get your hands free, also consider one of these for your tiller extension:

http://duckworksbbs.com/hardware/misc/sd491341-53/index.htm

These are cool...I use mine a lot.Let me know if you want a picture of how I mounted it...the first 2 attempts didnt work so well, but the third one did.

Curt

   Curt, I just ordered the storage clip last week so would love to see the successful mounting. you can email me at threedogranch at hotmail dot com. 

dont use a horn or jam cleat but use a cam cleat with no fairlead

I use clam cleats for the main sheet in steady moderate winds. I figure it's easier to just lift the line out rather than have to pull to release. What's your objection to them?

Barry

Thanks, Guys.

Curt - could you send me a pic of your set-up ([email protected]).   

I had a bad experience with clam cleats last spring. My centerboard pendants got thoroughly soaked (waves breaking against the side of the boat filling the cockpit with water) and swelled up to where I couldn't get them out of the clam cleat. The lines that were in cam cleats didn't have this problem.

Even without waterlogged lines, it's much faster to get the lines out of a cam cleat.

Laszlo

I use the simplest possible "cleating" system when I sail my Northeaster Dory. It actually allows fairly long stretches of hands-off sailing in light air. (I.e., the boat is also self-steering to some extent.) Usually, though, I need to keep a hand on the tiller extension. 

Here is a link to a 15-second YouTube demo:

https://youtu.be/n9Ps9TlSnwM

   Here is my "scrap piece of wood" mounting method for the duckworks rubber tiller clips...I have a 1" one facing inboard for the tiller extension vertical  face and a 3/4" one facing up for the tiller extension width..I have a mechanical swivel on the other end of the tiller extension so the tiller extension sits positively with the narrow face pointing up..I tend to use the 1" one facing in more often...it clips in easier without even looking.  Those are simply torx decking screws thru the rubber clip's hole into the wood...not fancy, need to make it look better this winter...

The reason I dont like clam cleats is because my junk bag of blocks and cleats only has clam cleats with a molded in fairlead and lines tend to get caught but a totally open clam cleat would work great...even better than a cam cleat now that I think about it when used for the dory mainsheet that is not bearing load and it's not a bad thing if it comes out.

Curt