Porthandbuoy
Well-Known Member
+1 Ideally on the starboard tack.
Dropping/reefing the main off the wind
- Thread starter Stemar
- Start date
+1 Ideally on the starboard tack.
KellysEye
Well-Known Member
We spent six and a half years long distance sailing and the easiest way to reef is to turn into wind, any point of sail would be impossibe because of the wind load on the sail.
Venus1
Well-Known Member
So there seems to be two schools of thought here: yes you can; or no you’re better off heaving to etc
On my swept back fractional rig, reefing downwind is NOT an option. Yes you can winch the sail down, perhaps with scandalising - but it is still “friction central” and something would break. I tend to come up into the wind to reef - uncomfortable but not dangerous (admittedly not always possible in rivers). I must heed the advice here and become more familiar with heaving to.
On my swept back fractional rig, reefing downwind is NOT an option. Yes you can winch the sail down, perhaps with scandalising - but it is still “friction central” and something would break. I tend to come up into the wind to reef - uncomfortable but not dangerous (admittedly not always possible in rivers). I must heed the advice here and become more familiar with heaving to.
wully1
Well-Known Member
How does Alex Williams and fellow racers do this solo on those enormously over powered boats?
lw395
Well-Known Member
Downwind, they probably reef the main early, get the kite up and hang on tight!
Stemar
Well-Known Member
Thanks for lots of interesting comments.
It may well have been the Pardeys that made the comment that inspired my effort. I've never been a fan of battenless mains, but I can see the advantage. I went the other way and fitted a performance main when I changed a few years ago, not because I planned on racing, but because I reckoned a Snappie needs all the help she can get!
Scandalising sounds like a good plan, but I may need a bit more length in my kicker before I can do it properly. Heaving to is something I do from time to time, and I'll have to experiment. but at the time I was on a run and didn't particularly want to change course.
The final thing for me is to remember that Milady can steer the boat under power, but she doesn't have the sensitivity to the wind to hold a precise course when it's needed, so trying to be clever and do stuff that needs skilled crew is probably not a good idea for a couple of pensioners pottering around the Solent in a Snapdragon, especially when, for a variety of reasons, we've scarcely been out on the water for four years, so everything's a bit rusty!
It may well have been the Pardeys that made the comment that inspired my effort. I've never been a fan of battenless mains, but I can see the advantage. I went the other way and fitted a performance main when I changed a few years ago, not because I planned on racing, but because I reckoned a Snappie needs all the help she can get!
Scandalising sounds like a good plan, but I may need a bit more length in my kicker before I can do it properly. Heaving to is something I do from time to time, and I'll have to experiment. but at the time I was on a run and didn't particularly want to change course.
The final thing for me is to remember that Milady can steer the boat under power, but she doesn't have the sensitivity to the wind to hold a precise course when it's needed, so trying to be clever and do stuff that needs skilled crew is probably not a good idea for a couple of pensioners pottering around the Solent in a Snapdragon, especially when, for a variety of reasons, we've scarcely been out on the water for four years, so everything's a bit rusty!
lw395
Well-Known Member
I don't see the relevance of scandalising the main to reefing on a run?
ISTM that lifting the boom to put a lot of slack in the leach will put the sail into maximum conflict with the rig and cause the top part of the sail to drive the mast to windward? What am I missing?
Personally, I think the main thing is to have reefing systems that work well and quickly. We only need to come up to a close reach for about 20 seconds to bang in a reef.
ISTM that lifting the boom to put a lot of slack in the leach will put the sail into maximum conflict with the rig and cause the top part of the sail to drive the mast to windward? What am I missing?
Personally, I think the main thing is to have reefing systems that work well and quickly. We only need to come up to a close reach for about 20 seconds to bang in a reef.
Poignard
Well-Known Member
I totally agree.
Kukri
Well-Known Member
I think that the only reason to drop the main when running is because you don’t have room to round up.
Conversely if you have a hanked on headsail you should drop it in the lee of the main.
Conversely if you have a hanked on headsail you should drop it in the lee of the main.
Old Bumbulum
Well-Known Member
I ought to add to my remarks above that with a capable enough crew rounding up and reefing in the space of the resulting luff is very efficient but in heavy weather more hazardous than heaving to, and that reefing on a run is perfectly feasible if you happen to ahve a suitable rig.
I too found my Sadler 32 reefed quite easily on a run but only after I had fitted all roller-cars. My current boat will do it (with slugs between roller cars at the reef-points) but realistically you need to turn off the run by enough to unload the main somewhat but quite doable solo with the autopilot. Shaking out a reef is certainly harder. Aft-raked shrouds that prevent the boom going all the way fwd certainly make reefing on a run less easy.
The answer of course is to try out all these possibilities in benign conditions and get acquainted with what is comfortable for you and your boat but into wind I'd always favour heaving-to especially shorthanded or with less experienced crew.
My liking of heaving to came from a coastal skipper's course at Southern Sailing when in the middle of a particularly uncomfortable and tiring bash to windward the instructor said we'd forgotten something important but no one could think what it was. Eventually he reminded us of his standing orders for regular cups of tea which made us all look at each other, all thinking b******d if I'm going down there to make a cuppa in this! Instructor of course knew this very well and said, 'watch this' , hove to and the whole hanging-on-grimly-and-ducking-flying-water suddenly turned into a nice, calm bright peaceful sunny day. We sat there parked for a few minutes with our tea as he briefed the next evolutions and reminded us never to forget that you can stop the boat and park up anytime you wish if it all gets too much like hard work.
It was a good lesson.
I too found my Sadler 32 reefed quite easily on a run but only after I had fitted all roller-cars. My current boat will do it (with slugs between roller cars at the reef-points) but realistically you need to turn off the run by enough to unload the main somewhat but quite doable solo with the autopilot. Shaking out a reef is certainly harder. Aft-raked shrouds that prevent the boom going all the way fwd certainly make reefing on a run less easy.
The answer of course is to try out all these possibilities in benign conditions and get acquainted with what is comfortable for you and your boat but into wind I'd always favour heaving-to especially shorthanded or with less experienced crew.
My liking of heaving to came from a coastal skipper's course at Southern Sailing when in the middle of a particularly uncomfortable and tiring bash to windward the instructor said we'd forgotten something important but no one could think what it was. Eventually he reminded us of his standing orders for regular cups of tea which made us all look at each other, all thinking b******d if I'm going down there to make a cuppa in this! Instructor of course knew this very well and said, 'watch this' , hove to and the whole hanging-on-grimly-and-ducking-flying-water suddenly turned into a nice, calm bright peaceful sunny day. We sat there parked for a few minutes with our tea as he briefed the next evolutions and reminded us never to forget that you can stop the boat and park up anytime you wish if it all gets too much like hard work.
It was a good lesson.
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