Barton single line reefing kit

[Windway]

My new boat comes with the old wind round the boom mainsail reefing, so I plan to replace this with slab reefing.
I fitted one of the Barton slab reefing kits to a friends boat and with double line reefing it worked very well, using rams horns at the mast for the luff cringles. WIth solo sailing in mind, I see Barton produce a SLR kit where you set up one reef one side of the boom and the second reef on the other side and with blocks, organisers and jammers bring the lines back to the cockpit. I was never a fan of SLR that runs inside the boom, but with the Barton kit on the outside of the boom that would not be a problem. My question is, has anyone used one of these and what were your impressions of fitting and using? Thanks.

 

[Stemar]

I have that setup - one reefing line either side of the boom, but it's a DIY job. It works well.

A couple of thoughts - you'll also want the main halyard, topping lift and vang (senior moment - can't think of the British word) back in the cockpit. A light downhaul for the main is useful too, ensuring you can get the main down all the way and secured when you don't want to leave the cockpit

Also, if you do DIY, get ball bearing blocks - there's a lot of string going round a lot of corners and you want to reduce friction as much as you can

 

[Martin&Rene]

Totally agree on the need to reduce friction, so on my mainsail I added blocks rather than just running the lines through the cringles.

For the luff reefing points I used Barton swivel eye ball bearing size 4 pulleys, as the pulleys wheels are covered on both sides. With the pulley on one side of the sail and a 50mm stainless steel ring on the other, I fastened them together with thin dyneema lines, one line from the ring, through the sail eye and then to the block and another line from the ring, round the front of the luff rope and then to the block. The reefing lines now go up and down on the same side of the sail, so the reefing lines may need re-routing somewhere. If your sail drops in a fixed set of folds, then try to match in the pulleys with the folds.

For the 1st and 2nd reef leech pulleys I used Harken T2 29mm blocks and fastened them to the leech eyes with loops of dyneema about 15cm long. For the 3rd reef, I use the same type of block attached by a soft shackle, so I can disconnect the leech 3rd reef line in light weather.

 

[vyv_cox]

Stemar's point about halyard and topping lift taken back to the cockpit is well made. It would be pointless having reefing lines there without them.

The biggest contribution to low friction when putting reefs in is to apply lots of topping lift, far more than seems necessary. This allows the clew to set correctly, otherwise needing heavy winching with a balance block system.

 

[Seajet]

I agree with Stemar completely; every block inc deck organisers and mast sheaves on my boat is ball bearing, it makes a huge difference; expensive but they only get fitted once.

 

[Stemar]

I put ball bearing blocks on my luff cringles, but there isn't enough tension on the leach cringles to matter on my little 24 footer. A bigger boat might be different.

I don't know how the professionals do it, but a D ring on one side of the cringle, a bit of tape through and the block on the other side, all stitched together works well for me.