Does line management take all the fun out of laser sailing?

Mainsheet tangles, like death and taxes, are a way of life for the avid laser sailor.

HECK NO!

Line management, especially on a laser is always a chore. You're busy on the race course, focused on getting to the windward mark, and before you know it you try to ease your mainsheet BUT by some sick "twist" of fate your line has a mess of a tangles. Before you can say "gybe ho"  three boats sail by while you're frantically working to untangle that darn line.

What's up with all the tangles? 
Knots, or in nautical terms (which I learned from a fat guy with a Mount Gay Rum hat) "knuckles" come when braided line—your mainsheet—becomes twisted. While you'll never completely solve the twist problem, with a little bit of housekeeping and learning to multi-task under sail, you can alleviate tangles to a large extent. 

Management before and in-between racing:

1. Twists naturally happen because most of us coil our lines like cowboys (minus the hat of course). But one person's "GIDDY-UP" is a laser sailor's "GET STUCK". So before leaving the dock take a few moments to run the line through your hands and work the kinks out.
2. If you coil your line in the boat don't twist it at the top of the coil. Instead let it fall in natural loop. That way it's not tangling.
3.  "Wash" the line between races. Throw the extra that's in your cockpit into the water and let it trail behind you for several seconds. When you retrieve it do a proper coil to avoid re-twisting.

Management while racing:

1. Always have one spot where you keep your line. Mine is the starboard front corner of the cockpit. Try to keep it there while racing upwind - just kick it up there between tacks and DON"T let the line get tangled around your feet.
2. Try, as much as possible, to keep water out of the cockpit. If you have more than a normal amount of water your line floats around and gets tangled.
3. Clear some line before you tack. I have perfected the "Run and Flip" (anyone who can come up with a sexier name gets $10.00). Just run a length of line through your hand and flip an equal amount forward of the cockpit. It usually lands in a nice loop next to the centerboard. Then when you tack you'll have a nice untangly bit to pass back to your new mainsheet hand.
4. Learn to manage under sail. Especially on the last couple of tacks to the windward leg. One thing you can do is hold the mainsheet and tiller in your back hand while your front hand checks the line. Use the Run and Flip to free-up your line.

Have fun - sail fast - keep untangling. And as Confucius says, "He who untangles line on dock gets more bullets on the water."