More Reasons to go down Fwd

Down the hatch. Down the hatch. Down the hatch.

Make sure you have a good look your hatch and take care of anything that could snag the kite on its way back out. Put a whiffle ball on top of the stanchion that is going to be on the kite's path on its way out. If your hatch is big enough, have a laundry bag made for the hole.

If you are doing mainly w/l courses with port roundings, practice doing windward drops so you can get the kite down on the left side of the boat, ready for the bear away set. In any case, the brains at the back of the boat should know what side they will want the kite for the next set. The brains at the front should be able to execute whatever is necessary to get it there --windward, leeward, mexican, whatever. But if you want to do a windward takedown and it is blowing 20kts be sure that you can get the boat deep enough to execute.

Now you've got all the gear on the correct side of the boat. You may need to unclip the spin halyard if you can't put enough slack in it. Spin halyards are too short on a lot of boats. Close the hatch on the head of the kite so you can hook it back up at the appropriate time. Otherwise, leave the halyard hooked up with a lot of slack. A clip to the rail (a snap shackle with a trip line that is lead back to the mast) can be nice but may not be necessary.

What came down untangled should go back up just fine, so you won't have to repack and you can keep bodies on the rail. It won't take so many people to get the kite down because it travels a shorter distance. The bow and mastman should be able to handle on their own. You can throw one more body at it if necessary (ie. bow still needs to deal with pole). Start doing windward drops and the kite will practically put itself away.