Reefing hooks

[petery]

I have just replaced a roller reefing boom with a boom set up for slab reefing (not singlke line) and have also bought new sails. I didn't order reefing hooks with the boom and I wasn't explicit about the hooks to the sailmaker. The luff cringles are about 10 cm from the luff of the sail and, for the life of me, I can't get them onto the reefing hooks wherever I site them. Am I missing something? Should I have a strap through the luff cringle and loop that over the hooks? Any guidance would be appreciated

 

[Gunfleet]

Peter,
I did this too and found some bits of the slab reefing arrangement a bit mystifying. I think some authorities recommend a length of webbing with an O ring sewn in. Then your sail doesn't end up over the hook and can't get torn. In theory.

 

[Strathglass]

Peter. on hire boats we used to supply a very short rope with a soft eye at either end (5" total length). This went from one horn, through the reefing eye to the other horn. This caused less damage to the sail and the inexperinced users found it easier. It was not as quick as hooking the sail directly on to one reefing horn.
Iain

 

[Gordon]

10 cm is far to much.........should be about an inch away

then you will get them on easy

 

[quaelgeist2]

From your posting I can't see whether you have the right solution for what you want to do.

There are either O-rings on some webbing sewn onto the sail with some further strengthening of the sail, or just a reinforced 'whole' ?

If you ended up with the latter, it is for two-line or single-line reefing arrangements. If you don't want to go there, then and you could probably be fine with the arrangement mentioned before , i.e. a short line tight to horn, through the sail and tight to the other side of the horn. You can straighten the sail using the halyyard, so you need little force to put it on.

cheers
chris

 

[rex_seadog]

I have also been thinking along the lines of using a short length of rope hooked from horn to horn when reefing but had never heard of it been done before seeing this thread. On our Hunter Delta we converted from luff rope to slides and at the same time added a third reef as we felt overcanvassed in a F6. The problem with the third reef is that there are too many slides stacked up at the base of the mast track to enable us to hook on the luff cringle (a simple reinforced eye). We therefore have to open up the mast gate to remove a couple of slides which is a bit fiddly in the sort of conditions that necessitate the third reef. Another advantge I can envisage is that by raising the luff cringle an inch or two it would also have the effect of raising the clew end of the boom by a similar amount - currently it's a smidgin low for comfort. With the first two reefs there is no problem in hooking the cringle directly onto the horn providing I get most of the sail folds out of the way onto the opposite side of the boom.

The mast gate, incidentally, is a homemade job consisting of pieces of shaped stainless steel, two of which pivot out of the way when wing nuts are loosened. We were unable to find a suitable proprietary conversion for our Holt mast. I believe this exact problem with a Delta was posed in a thread some months ago but, very remiss of me, I never got round to responding.

 

[rex_seadog]

I have also been thinking along the lines of using a short length of rope hooked from horn to horn when reefing but had never heard of it been done before seeing this thread. On our Hunter Delta we converted from luff rope to slides and at the same time added a third reef as we felt overcanvassed in a good blow. The problem with the third reef is that there are too many slides stacked up at the base of the mast track to enable us to hook on the luff cringle (a simple reinforced eye). We therefore have to open up the mast gate to remove a couple of slides which is a bit fiddly in the sort of conditions that necessitate the third reef. Another advantge I can envisage is that by raising the luff cringle an inch or two it would also have the effect of raising the clew end of the boom by a similar amount - currently it's a smidgin low for comfort. With the first two reefs there is no problem in hooking the cringle directly onto the horn providing I get most of the sail folds out of the way onto the opposite side of the boom.

The mast gate, incidentally, is a homemade job consisting of pieces of shaped stainless steel, two of which pivot out of the way when wing nuts are loosened. We were unable to find a suitable proprietary conversion for our Holt mast. I believe this exact problem with a Delta was posed in a thread some months ago but, very remiss of me, I never got round to responding.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Spectacles

The o-rings system is the one I inherited with the North main on my boat - the local sailmaker who did a bit of work on the sail over the winter referred to them as 'spectacles'.

Short length of webbing through the cringle with a s/steel ring sewn in either end. Very easy to hook in compared with forcing a cringle over the horn, and the one for the third reef is a tad longer to allow for the bunched up sail. I guess a line with soft or hard eyes spliced in at either end would do the same, but the advantage of spectacles is that they are always there.

 

[petery]

Absolutely right. They are about 2.5 inches away from the luff not 4 inches - I got my conversion wrong late at night - but they are still difficult/impossible to hook directly over the horns.

I will be trying a strap with soft eyes as suggested by another post.