boom reefing

[fri]

In the last edition of CB I saw an example of traditionol boom, roll reefing of the main sail.
Does anyone have more info on this?


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[DMGibson]

I assume you mean the type of reefing where the mainsil is lowered and the excess sail is rolled up on the boom.

This is one of those fashion items which came in about 30 years ago, and has disappeared again as people found the main problem with the system. As you roll up the sail, the boom slowly drops, and it is impossible to stretch the sail out along the boom, so the shape of the sail goes totally to pot.

I know, as my boat used to have the system. Like most others in the same position, I have converted back to the far more traditional points reefing system, which works. The sail retains its shape with one, two and even three reefs set in it.

The only sop to modernity is that I have the slab reefing lines set so the foot of the sail can be hauled down from the mast end of the boom - you don't have to hang out over the ocean to tie down the reef cringle in the leech, as it is hauled in on the slab reef line.

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[Mirelle]

May one respectfully disagree?

I don't know about it being a "Fashion item from thirty years ago"!

Thirty years ago, as I remember quite well, the new "in" thing was "jiffy reefing", later re-christened "slab reefing", that is to say the system which is described in the post above. Points reefing, but with the leech pennants permanently rove and taken to a winch at the mast.

I suppose much depends on what one means by that sadly over-used word "traditional", but the slab reefing system, whilst clearly descended from old fashioned points reefing, depends on modern materials to work effectively, just as modern headsail roller gears descend directly from the wooden roller gears of a hundred years ago, which were just the same as todays but which were unreliable because the materials available were not up to the job.

Likewise the fin keel was around over a century ago, used on racers by Nathaniel Herreshoff in the USA and by Charles Sibbick in this country; they understood the theory of it perfectly well, but the idea fell out of favour because orthodox plank on frame construction cannot withstand the higher loadings imposed by a fin keel when built light enough to take advantage of the reduction in wetted surface, so the fin keelers of those days, unkindly christened "skimming dishes", lasted a couple of seasons before falling apart.

Now, to get back to reefing your mainsail by rolling it round the boom - this has been done for well over a hundred years, maybe one hundred and fifty, so some people might consider it a traditional method - it is certainly a lot older than slab reefing in the modern manner, with no reef tackle slung under the boom and permanently rove leech pennants.

Roller reefing of the mainsail was a standard fitting on Bristol channel pilot cutters and West Country trading ketches, over a century ago. They used it because they sailed short handed. It was not fitted on fishing boats as it was too expensive and they had big crews. The version used in the West Country was known as Appledore gear because, presumably it originated there, it has an open worm drive to a gear wheel on the boom.

Another version, commonly used on yachts and small boats, for at least as long, is Turner's Pattern, which uses a ratchet gear and a pawl; this is considered to be less good in large sizes but is fine in small sizes.

The R-R of these gears is Worth's pattern, which uses a pawl and ratchet with a separate pawl ring to take the torsional load off the gooseneck; this was only invented about 100 years ago and is much the rarest type as it cost quite a bit more. It is well described in his book, Yacht Cruising, first edition 1911.

A very nice worm drive type with an enclosed worm in an oil bath was made by Merrimans in the USA; this was a standard fitting on offshore racers in the 50's and early 60's and you sometimes see one at the better boat jumbles.

These systems, like Wykeham Martin jib furling gear, are sworn by or sworn at; generally those who, like me, sail biggish gaff cutters, short handed, swear by them, and those who have Bermuda rigged boats swear at them because they do not suit triangular sails so well, and the leech tends to droop. When this was standard offshore racing gear booms were made larger at the outboard end to correct for the outboard end dropping - either (very swish!) the boom itself was tapered or more commonly battens were fitted.

A problem with these gears is that the mainsheet must come from the end of the boom; when the mainsail is close reefed the bending strain on the boom is considerable. Personally I usually rig a relieving tackle of some sort with a strop and a handy billy to a convenient eyebolt (the lee runner eyebolt, in my case). Worth (op cit) gives dimensions to avoid risk of breakage for different types of wooden booms.

Some boats have a claw ring to allow the sheet to come from forward on the boom; some people including me dislike this fitting intensely, due to the risk of rolling it up in the sail, but if you want one you can still get them, from Classic Marine.

I am a very big fan of my Appledore gear and certainly would not want to go messing about with points, bee blocks, pennants and tackles. It takes about one minute to put a reef in or take it out, and it can be done under way on any point of sailing. I put a reef in on Sunday afternoon because my 8 year old found the helm heavy in the freshest moments of the sea breeze between Harwich and the entrance to the Backwaters, and took it out about 10 minutes later. Doubt if I would have bothered, if I had slab reefing.

It's horses for courses - with gaff rig, roller reefing can be very practical, with Bermuda rig, I personally think it is somewhat less than ideal, but I have a friend of vast experience who has had the same Turner pattern gear on his Harrison Butler cutter for over thirty years and has gone all over Europe with it, usually singlehanded. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Mirelle on 27/05/2003 13:43 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Gordonmc]

Re: May one respectfully disagree?

I read your reply with interest, Mirelle as it is a subject I have been agonising with for a while.

The boom on my Bermudan sloop has roller reefing, later converted to slab with addition of a fully battened main. Because the boom is warped I have been thinking about replacement... but whether to keep the roller gear? I agree in principle it is a tidier system than slab, but there are two main disadvantages I would like your opinion on.

1. Lazy-jacks are a necessity because of the full length battens. I presume I would have to do away with the present set up which has attachments at the bottom of the boom. To allow the boom to roll the lazy jacks would have to be seperate. Any idea how?
2. To reef down, the luff slides and batten carriages would have to be dropped out of the mast groove, making shaking the reefs a three handed job. One on the roller handle, one on the halyard and the third (and fourth if possible) feeding the groove.
3. While the roller reefing set-up is simple enough the kicking strap arrangements with boom rollers seems a nightmare. I seriously doubt if this system would work withiout damaging the battens or sail.

I am not condemning the roller reefing method, just looking for a steer on how to use it effectively.



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[Mirelle]

Probably impossible...

if you retain the full length battens, for at least the following reasons:

1. There is no known way to retain lazy jacks with a roller boom. Of course,
there is no need for lazy jacks when reefing with roller, as there is no surplus material to gather up, but if the lazy jacks are handy when furling and stowing then you might want to keep them.

2. The loading on the batten cars is pretty high most of the time, so feeding them into the track would be very hard work with wind in the sail.

3. It is very unlikely indeed that the sail would roll up in such a way as to keep the batten parallel to the boom - much more likely that it would roll with the batten skewed, resulting in a broken batten.

4. There is no way to fit a kicking strap with a roller boom. Indeed this is probably what accounted for the system's demise. I have seen at least one roller boom with a keyhole shaped slot into which a kicking strap block could be fitted with the sail unreefed, but with a reefed sail a kicking strap is impossible.

So your choice is really to go back to the sort of rig that the boat had when new, with a new mainsail, or to replace the boom with a modern one and keep the full length battens, lazy jacks, etc.

Personally, I loathe the lazy jack and full length batten system, as it has let me down more than once, on OPB's, usually in the middle of the night in a rising wind in a tight spot. Unless these systems are extremely well engineered, and consequently very expensive, the friction on the batten cars and the twisting load imposed on the mast track are so great that the whole system can lock up, leaving you with a mainsail that you can neither lower, nor reef. Alternatively, something breaks, leading to the same situation.....Of course, the professional short handed racers, burning sponsors' money, can have beautifully made systems, but for ordinary yachts owned by ordinary people the cost of a good system is exorbitant and the reliability of the sort one can afford is, in my personal experience, doubtful.

Like roller reefing headsails, the best quality systems, costing Sums Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, are superb examples of British (usually!) cottage engineering, (like F1 cars!), and will take you around the world four times, and often the ones that are affordable are fine on a summer Saturday afternoon in the Solent.

However, you are obviously happy with yours; don't let old curmudgeons like me put you off!

The problem of feeding the slides onto and off the mast track exists with all roller systems and Bermudian mainsails, of course. One can usually belay the halyard for the moment needed to get the slide on. Gaff boats with mast hoops have to cut the hoops off as they reef and lash them on as they shake the reef out, but if, like me and many others, you use a lacing instead, you have no problem. Some Bermudian boats use a short lacing to the lower slides on the track so the slides stay on the mast, in a siding, so to speak, and can be laced quickly back on as you shake the reef out. The siding is needed if you carry your trysail on a track, with a gate or "points" to switch the trysail over the head of the mainsail.

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[Gordonmc]

Re: Probably impossible...

Thanks for your thoughts, Mirelle.
Given that the sails are probably worth more than the boat I will stick with the full battens and lazy-jacks abandoning the roller reefing idea.
I will bite the bullet and add slab reefing lines to make life easier.
So far the batten tracks have not been a problem as the carriages are pretty robust with eight wheels each. Hopefully a bit of care will prevent the jamming problem.

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[Mirelle]

Re: Probably impossible...

That's what I'd do, I think. There are some very good slab reefing booms available.

As and when they do jam (said the curmudgeon!) motoring straight into the wind sometimes sorts it out.

I'll stick with my bronze worm drive. I can see what it's getting up to!

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[Wai_Tapu]

Re: Probably impossible...

Re your point 4), there are a couple of ways of fitting a kicking strap on a roller reef boom. One is the claw you mentioned earlier that you use for the main sheet, and the second is something I was going to experiment with on my Trapper 500 - a length of webbing attached to the normal boom kicking strap fixing point which gets wound up with the sail and to which the kicking strap can be re-attached when the required amount has been rolled away. Probably less effective due to stretch, etc, and could cause wear on the sail against the mounting, but better than nothing at all?

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[Mirelle]

It works

You are quite right; using a length of webbing wound up with the sail works pretty well. The art lies in using the right length of webbing!

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