Boom roller reefing

[DoubleEnder]

I’m thinking hard about buying a boat that’s for sale. She has a 3/4 Bermudan rig, small foretriangle. Mainsail area at a guess 220 sq ft. The mast is spruce and the boom I think Douglas fir. She’s 25’ LOA
The boom is fitted with roller reefing, with beautiful, fully functioning bronze castings at the aft end of the boom where the mainsheet attaches and a wonderful, smooth winding gear at the gooseneck. It all works (ie winds) very smoothly. I haven’t had the chance to use it in action with the sail up, and realistically I will not get a chance to do so.
I know that this method of reefing the main is old fashioned, inefficient, problematic etc. I would prefer slab reefing of course. But, given that this lovely, original engineering is all in place, and functioning, I’d quite like to find out what can be done to get the best from it. The existing main is very tired so I’m quite happy with the idea of getting a new sail made. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

thank you

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I’ve owned a pretty modern boat with boom roller reefing. It was perfectly efficient. Well engineered, no reason why it shouldn’t be. A million pound 100% modern boat I can think of has it too. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

[Tranona]

Two main drawbacks in terms of control of reefed sail shape is the boom sags and it is difficult to arrange a vang. The former is usually offset by having a tapered boom and the latter by a claw. It may well have all this already and if the gear at the gooseneck is good then there are advantages over slab in that the sail area is infinitely variable - just like in mast. You will appreciate this when you come to use it. Downside in general though is that you need to go to the mast to reef. What boat is it?

 

[Poignard]

In addition to any information you get from the diminishing number of people here with practical experience of it, I suggest you read the relevant chapter of "Cruising Under Sail" by Eric Hiscock.

 

[srm]

Have only sailed on two boats with roller boom reefing. The second yacht I owned, delivery trip from Dartmouth to Shetland convinced me to change to slab reefing to keep a working shape. We sailed under headsail when the wind got up and needed more than the equivalent of a first slab reef as the main became a useless bag on the wind generating more heeling force than drive. The second boat was an old Moody used for our YM Instructor course (1980). Same problem but it was November on the Clyde. Engine not working so had to do everything under sail. Fortunately, it had reef cringles and lacing eyes for a deep reef. Took a while to tie down when needed but gave a definite improvement on shape.

If you keep it and get a new sail I suggest that you give the sailmaker as much information as possible so that the sail is designed for the roller boom and will give a good shape when reefed. Also, reef cringles and lacing eyes for a deep reef should you ever need it.

I remember reading articles about using roller reefing booms in PBO and YM when at school. Tapered battens on the boom seemed to be popular, also tricks such as folding sail bags or similar into the sail as it was rolled to absorb the built in shape and flatten the sail. Perhaps foam strips in the foot like those used in roller reefing headsails could help. There must be an answer for keeping sail shape as in boom rolling is back on the market.

A lot will depend on how you intend to use the boat. If day sailing and only likely to have to roll a shallow reef then it would be nice to keep the original gear intact.

Looking at old drawings and photos I suspect that the roller boom was originally developed for gaff sails where it makes much more sense if leech is close to parallel to the luff. I think the west country trading ketches working with minimum crew used roller booms.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Ours wasn’t infinitely variable, as the lock was the crank handle, which lined up, one per revolution, with a socket in the mast, I liked it, and it was proved in action. The boat had no kicking strap though, it was an F27 trimaran, and had a long curved traveller. I have seen a fair few classic boats with it though. Enough to make one think it was a workable solution. A friend had it on his Robert Clark yawl, though he didn’t sail enough to comment.

 

[DoubleEnder]

This is an old boat, classic if you like. The boat would be used for daysailing, and very limited cruising, she is quite small and with extremely snug accomodation.
There is no kicking strap/vang and that's fine, I can cope. I had my last boat for 17 years and she had no kicking strap.
I do not envisage having to take deep reefs, though of course who knows.... But, the sailplan has a large main & a small headsail, and I believe it would often be the case that the boat would be more comfortable with reduced sail. Anyway, I have not bought her yet, so let's see.
But thank you for the input everyone

 

[benjenbav]

…

Looking at old drawings and photos I suspect that the roller boom was originally developed for gaff sails where it makes much more sense if leech is close to parallel to the luff.

Agree.

 

[ashtead]

The safety issue can be inexperienced crew unlocking the handle at front of mast with tension on the sail as the handle hen takes out their knees. This roller boom system common on westerly and made reefing a tedious process compared to points but maybe simpler to control sail I think as there is no loose sail. Never helped with ability to sail upwind though .