How do you balance genoa & mainsail reefs?

[stevebrassett]

My boat is not set up to reef the main from the cockpit, so I reef the main first, before it gets too lumpy. Plus, as I roll away the genoa, the centre of effort moves forward, giving me more lee helm (not helped by the reefed main).

 

[Ludd]

Heavy long keel NAB/ Rasmus.
1st of three reefs in main, then a couple of rolls in the 110% genny.
2nd reef in main, the full hoist staysail goes on inner forestay.
3rd reef in main, small staysail on inner forestay.
Don't know at what wind speeds, instruments haven't worked for years!
Reefing at mast, staysails in bags at foot of mast.
Only way the boat feels right, although if the wind direction is right, she does alright under genny only.

 

[KellysEye]

You have to balance a boat to use a wind vane, we had a Hydrovane and a ketch. It took some time with trial and error to balance the main/genoa and genoa/mizzen but we got there. You will get there in the end but it does need a number of different wind strengths. You know it's balanced when there is no lee or weather helm. I always wondered if we could complete a longish passage without using the wind vane and just balance the boat. I did that successfully when helping the new owner deliver the boat from Lymington to Scarborough, we got very lucky with the wind direction changing and reached all the way, we only steered twice to alter course once to turn up the east coast and once into the bay where Scarborough is otherwise we touched nothing. We also decided to see if we could not use waypoints and did that sucessfully but did have local knowledge.