On Blue Meanie we try to sail with 8 when possible to get as close to 1400 pounds as we can. In PHRF, the eighth man is a floater feeding me GPS info from the rail and helping on takedowns, human guy etc., in one design the eighth helps me on main trim and tactics (both of which I handle myself in PHRF). We go with a port and starboard trimmer, a separate spin trimmer, pit (handles halyard up/down and tensioning, twings, helps yank the chute down the forward hatch and does a quick run of the tapes, calls time at the start and monitors radio, and is the bartender for post race cocktails), mast and bow. Bow handles topping lift and foreguy, we tail the spin halyard back to the cockpit (and into the cabin) to minimize spaghetti forward. We launch and douse the chute out of the forward hatch to keep the already crowded cockpit clear.
Most importantly, we keep a nice selection of canned beer, and a bar stocked with premium gin, vodka, rum and tonic (all in lightweight plastic bottles of course). We rotate on lime duty...
