Newbie reefing questions

[William_H]

Reefing

As said forget roller reefing.
Get reefing points put in the sail which does not have them or use the old sail.
Reefing gives you performance comfort and peace of mind when the wind comes up. It is especially good if you are taking out nervous people.
I use a topping lift which is simply a cord from mast top down with a snap shackle to hook onto the boom end. However i use it only when raining and lowering the mainsail. In my case not reefing. I have a system of 2 line reefing , a rope for front and another for back of sail that go to winches on the cabin top. I drop the main halyard about half the amount needed for the reef then tighten the clew line which raises the boom. I then tighten the tack line then lower the halyard the rest of the way and pull in the clew and tack reef lines.
I do this close hauled but not hove too.

However for yourself. You should try the sail with reef points. Do this before departure. Pull the sail up till the tack reefing point is level with the gooseneck. Tie a rope through the eyelet and around the mast then back through the eyelet and around the boom. Pull this as tight as possible.
Now do a similar tie with another rope through the clew (back) eyelet around the boom back through the eyelet then out to the outhaul fitting. Pull this as tight as possible. The bunt of the sail can hang down and hopefully won't annoy you. If there are eyelets midway use these to allow you to use some cord to tie the but up. I find the front of the sail is the only part that matters. The front rope should pull the luff into the line of the luff up the mast and down onto the boom. You then adjust the halyard tension. The tightness of the clkew line dictates the outhaul of the foot of the sail. Tight for stronger winds.

With any slab reefing you will find if you use slugs in the track at the luff you will have to remove the bottom slugs either permanently or temporarily. A bolt rope in the mast is not problem.
If you like reefing and want to be able to do it under way then fit the reefing lines back to the cockpit.
good luck olewill

 

[john_morris_uk]

The sequence of events is to ease the sheet, lower the halyard, secure the tack, secure the clew (haul in the reefing line), re-hoist the halyard, re-sheet the main.

It is important that you secure the tack before you pull on the reefing line to secure the clew.

Its has been suggested that the road to hell is paved with people who when reefing forget to slacken the kicking strap (or Vang if you are American) first... and make it up last.

To the OP I agree with others: a topping lift would be a good idea.

I suspect that a boom crutch might get you into trouble. In such a small boat, the boom would be held rigidly in one position and what sail is left up and flapping might catch the wind a little too much and you might find yourself on your beam ends - especially if you haven't got someone else on the helm sailing under headsail only whilst you attend to the reef.

 

[Sire]

Thanks again for the excellent responses. I think I'll probably fit a topping lift, although I realise it's not essential there does seem to be a concensus of opinion that it makes things a bit more pleasant. Of course if I don't like it for any reason nothing stops me removing it

The snow and ice are going fast. I'll see if I can take a look at the mast head and boom today, to remind me what they are actually like - and maybe take some photos.

 

[bbg]

Its has been suggested that the road to hell is paved with people who when reefing forget to slacken the kicking strap (or Vang if you are American) first... and make it up last.

Good point - my main is sheeted to the boom end with a track all the way across the aft end of the cockpit (track is nearly 3 m long), so I tend not to use the vang upwind. Vang is typically not tight if I'm reefing while sailing upwind, so I often don't need to touch it.

But I agree - ease mainsheet AND vang / kicker.

 

[jwilson]

Hi

Now that the season is approaching (there is however still ice on the lake ) I thought I'd ask something that I haven't been able to find an answer to in any of my sailing books.

We have a 17' trailer sailer that we bought last year just before the lake froze over. In the past I used to sail a very simple dinghy (Skipper 14), but that's it as far as experience goes.

From what I have been able to find out about our boat on the net, it apparently likes to be reefed early and sailed upright. The question is, what's the best way to do this?! I asked the previous owner, and he said he didn't ever reef as such, just loosened the kicking strap to let the sail twist and spill some air that way. In fact, the mainsail that he used doesn't have reefing points.

I have another, new unused, mainsail that was original to this type of boat. It has one set of slab reefing eyelets let in.

Here's question 1 then: how do I go about slab reefing, without filling the cockpit with boom, flapping sail, etc etc? At present there is no topping lift, which I think would help, but as the previous owner has managed without for 25 years...

Also, I wondered if it was possible to instead roll the sail around the boom, but I can't see any way of disconnecting the boom end from the gooseneck. I remember that there is a square end on the end of the boom that fits into the part that fits into the mast track but I don't remember a way of getting it out (I can't check easily at present as there is still arse-deep snow where the boat is!).

This brings me on to question 2, assuming that there is a way of rolling the sail around the boom. what do I do about the kicking strap, as obviously the rolled sail will be in the way of the boom fitting.

Thanks in advance!

"Z"

On a 17 ft boat fitting cruiser-style slab reefing is a bit sledgehammer/nut. Most boats of that size (big dinghy, maybe with a cabin) will have a dinghy-style square gooseneck, that you can pull the boom out an inch ot two, rotate the boom and roll up the sail.

DON'T let the halyard right off, just loosen it, leaving just one round turn left on the cleat and start rolling the boom against the halyard tension, this keeps the roll tight and smooth. I have done this hundreds of times on dinghies and small sailing cruisers single-handed, mainsheet eased and jib flapping, which keeps the boat in a sort of crude hove-to position, in fact the RYA used to call it the "basic hove to" position when I taught dinghy sailing.

On a heavier boat than a dinghy you may be able to do thiis mainsail reefing in the more elegant and quiet proper hove to position, with jib backed. On a really light boat though that risks capsize if you are reacting to a big wind increase.

The traditional answer to losing the kicking strap with rolled boom is to roll in a strap to attach one, but I have never bothered. As the mainsail gets smaller the kicker gets less important.

If you don't have a removable square-type gooseneck you may have to fit reefing points, which will at least let you keep the kicker.

 

[bbg]

What to do with the bunt of the sail? Just let it hang free.

A friend of mine on his boat - you can see the bunt of the sail:

 

[Sire]

@ John Morris:

Sorry your sig line has been really bugging me I HAD to finish it...

“There once was a man from Peru
Whose limericks stopped at line two."

...if you read his first efforts
full of bums tits and f-words
you'd agree it's a good thing they do!

 

[onenyala]

When I have tried heaving to to reef I am never able to heave to without some wind in the main which makes it hard if not impossible to pull the main down. If I tweek the tiller so the boat heads more up wind to spill more wind out then there is always the chance that the boat will go through the wind and then it is game over !
Am I missing something.
I should add that all of the above evolutions are done single handed with all the string at the mast.

 

[bbg]

When I have tried heaving to to reef I am never able to heave to without some wind in the main which makes it hard if not impossible to pull the main down. If I tweek the tiller so the boat heads more up wind to spill more wind out then there is always the chance that the boat will go through the wind and then it is game over !
Am I missing something.
I should add that all of the above evolutions are done single handed with all the string at the mast.

Ease the mainsheet completely.

 

[onenyala]

As far as I remember when I ease the sheet completely the boom and sail finish up on the shrouds and it is stiil not possible to pull the main down.
Thinking aloud if I ease the main sheet out won't the boat eventually saill further and further down wind pressing the boom and sail harder onto the shrouds ?

 

[bbg]

Presumably you heave-to by tacking the boat but not tacking the headsail? So it is sheeted to the weather side of the boat? Then put the helm fully to leeward (so the rudder is trying to tack the boat back, but it can't because of the sheeted headsail)?

If you fully ease the main, the boat will bear away a little, but as it builds speed the flow over the rudder will increase, the rudder will become more effective and push the bow back up.

That is all in theory, of course, and some boats heave-to better than others.

 

[ghostlymoron]

On my Leisure 17, I modified the mainsail so that I had two reefing points. I also converted the luff to slides (slugs) from a bolt rope. I already had a topping lift but, if you have no sheave for this, you could just have a fixed topping lift with a snap shackle at the bottom as your boom will be light enough to lift and clip on. I put cringles? at luff and leach with a reinforcing patch for each reefing point and fixed bulls eyes to the boom to pull each end down. The ends were secured in a dinghy cleat also rivetted to the boom. Instead of having seperate reefing lines for luff and leach, I rigged it so that it went from the boom, up through the reefing cringle, back down to a bulls eye on the opposite side of the boom, through the cleat, through the other cleat (with a bit of slack between), through the aft bulls eye, up through the aft reefing cringle and back to the boom. If you can understand that!
This system worked well although you did have to go to the mast to operate the halyard but that was never a problem.

 

[Sire]

ghostlym that system sounds very neat.

Here are some pictures of my mast and boom.
The masthead, vane removed for the winter:

The shrouds come from a little lower down. Maybe I could replace this m/s bolt, and at the same time use it to attach an eyelet of some sort for a topping lift, any suggestions?

The mainsheet and kicker fittings, roller reefing dinghy style is out of the question:

But I do have an eyelet that would probably be strong enough for the topping lift:

Out of focus photo of gooseneck, there is a square peg that fits into the end of the boom but it's fixed. That shackle is where the tack cringle goes: