The spiral hitch to bend sails to spars twists my knickers and ensures that the sails set badly.

The only possible place for the spiral hitch might be when the sail is fixed to the spar, like the foot along a boom or the head along a gaff. Even there it's bad as it's so hard to adjust the outhaul tension without leaving little scallops and because the spiral tends to "self-adjust" to bag in the middle.

For a fixed application, the marling hitch (so often tied backwards to be essentially half-hitches running through grommets but that's another peeve) is better.

But why did not one single boatbuilder at the show set up with a proper lacing? Everyone on this board knows what I mean - looks like a series of alternating shallow V's. I roamed the show searching in vain for a properly laced sail. I hope I overlooked at least one correct example and someone can point my memory towards it.

For all that and for all Saturday's storm and freeway blockages that kept attendance down and for all the whisps of cheauvanistic "Brand-Name-Maine" lurking in the corners (what about all the Cape Cod exhibitors and Thad and all?), this boatbuilders show remains worth the pilgrimage and

Finastkind.