Mainsail reefing advice needed.

On our boat, the clew reefing lines go from fixed sliders on the boom through the reef cringle and then to the boom end pulley to pull downwards and out. You can see the first reef in place in the following picture (should have a bit more tension than shown) with a bowline on the end through which the line passes. You can also see the second reef slider. We have a reefing winch on the mast, suspect we were being a bit lazy when this taken

First_Reef.JPG
 
Re: Mast gate...

Cheers for all the help evryone.

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Andy, if you look at OP, you will see he has a quite different mast from yours (and mine). His looks more like a wayfarer mast !

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I don't know what OP means so sorry if I misunderstand, but I nicked that piccy from Lakesailor to illustrate my slug falling out problem, my mast gate is more like the flanges are just missing, not sticking out like in lakesailor's pic, so dya think the selden mast slider gate thing might work for me, the gate looks just like most other boats I've seen?

Nice picy Tome n thanks for all the help, I hope mine sets like that now. If I may just pick your brains a bit more, I notice you have full genoa n a reefed main in your piccy even tho you have r/r up front. Is this how you would normally initially reduce sail area?
 
Re: Mast gate...

OP = original poster = you.
I reckon Tome already answered that one... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif he was just being lazy (aren't we all).

re your mast. If it is a selden, then it would normally come with an oval gate (if you have a missing gate, you will see a clearly defined oval with two screw holes inside the mast which used to hold the gate in place). The gate is quite clever, it allows the slides to be inserted into the mast slot, and then, with a flick of the finger, the guide changes position so that the slides are able to traverse the slot from above to below the gate without any chance of falling out. The substitute referred to above is for the case when the slides are too big to use the gate, when the gate has to be removed to fit/remove the sail c/w slides.
 
Re: Mast gate...

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I notice you have full genoa n a reefed main in your piccy even tho you have r/r up front. Is this how you would normally initially reduce sail area?

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You can see from the pic that we are reasonably hard on the wind. I can easily tell when to reef by looking at the wheel (or tiller - it's all the same) and seeing how much weather helm we have. If it's excessive, the first step is to drop the traveller to leeward which will depower the main and reduce the weather helm

Next step is to put the first reef in, but we will still carry full genoa at this stage (masthead rig, 150% genoa). We will start to reduce genoa if it freshens any more, and eventually think about 2nd reef to balance. The trick is in keeping just a moderate weather helm so a well balanced sail plan

We also have an inner forestay (removable) onto which we can set a No 3 jib. This is very handy if setting out into fresh headwinds, and we would normally set this with the second reef in the main to balance the rig. We sail as fast to windward with this as if using the genoa in anything over F4. If it gets a bit much, we'll put in the 3rd reef and after that we're looking at storm sails (F8+) or preferably the pub

EDIT - I note that in my previous post I mentioned that the reefing line went through a bowline in the end. This isn't strictly true. It's an eye splice - I bit the bullet a few years back and learned how to do them in braid-on-braid

No3Jib_1.JPG
 
Re: Mast gate...

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Not good is it, tsk? I'll bollock the EBBs for that...

[/ QUOTE ] Given their occasional fallibility in distinguishing between two similar objects (glass doors, for example) you might be better doing it yourself, to make sure you don't free off the furled jib and tighten the No 3.....
 
Re: Mast gate...

You have a point, and they cheekily suggested it was me who was responsible for the the sloppy genoa furl. Tsk tsk indeed
 
Re: Mast gate...

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I reckon Tome already answered that one... he was just being lazy (aren't we all)

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Not being lazy (on this occasion anyway). She sails well with full genoa and single reef. Trick is to keep the helm light. You can also see that the angle of heel is comfortable. When she starts dipping a rail it's time to reduce the genoa
 
Re: Lazy bugger...

Oh sorry, twas you who mentioned being lazy -- I was assuming (by the sea state F3?) that you meant you had had some wind and reefed but were being lazy in not unreefing. Since it was not that, what was it?

I also find with a 150% that the main gets reefed first, but being really lazy I will tend to ease it down a bit first to let it backwind a bit, this eases any tendency for weather helm. When it is clear that the wind is serious, that first main reef goes in. At my age, I hate putting reefs in and out, esp out. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Re: Lazy bugger...

On the occasion pictured we'd already eased the traveller but the wind was still building and the helm becoming heavy, so time for the first reef to go in. We were south of IOW en route to Weymouth and eventually had to roll in some genoa and put in the 2nd reef as the wind built to a strong breeze

Nice sail, and the chap on the helm managed to find the groove for the first time - something just clicked for him that day and he's never lost it since
 
Late reading this but FWIW - we have 2-line; others have given good advice - only point to add is that we use the mast pennant to tension the sail not the halyard - like a cunningham - so leave the halyard a little short then pull the pennant down - we do this b4 the clew.
 
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