John Rumm wrote:

With big cable forms its often easier to have someone or something to
lay them onto since you can't get that many coils in your hand at a time.

Same with the large lines on sailing ships. Last time I went on Stavros
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_s_niarchos ) they had stopped
teaching trainees to coil in the hand at all, presumably to keep things
simple. It's also easier to get consistent sized coils on the deck as
well - always 4 planks wide :-)

Pete