Reefing penants

Clyde_Wanderer

Clyde_Wanderer

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Can someone explain to me, or maybe even afford some sort of sketch of the setup for slab type reefing penants, as my main has eyes or is it cringles in it for some sort of ropes to go through.
I am sure there is two eyes at the luff and two at the leach, one above the other, as there is two sets of reef eyes across the sail.
Up to now, we have been pulling the sail down by hand, and tying the four reefing lines,( the ones through the horizontal row of eyes ) around the gathered up sail around the boom, but know this is not the proper method as these other penants should be used, and we have managed to pull one of the metal eyelets out of the sail.
Cant find any actual drawings anywhere.
Thanks, and wish you all a good Christmas.
Cheers, Eamonn.
 
Hello Eamon I can't imagine why there are 2 sets of eyelets at each reef pennant point unless you are refering to 2 sets of reefing eyelets. ie one about 600mm up from the foot and another set 600mm higher. One for strong winds another for more reefing when it really blows.
For my opinion however the only value for the reefing eyelets is to enable you to loop a rope (string) around the gathered up sail on the boom to tidy it up.
In other words all the sail tensioning should be done by the reefing outhaul at the clew (big eyelet) and reefing line at the mast end at the tack. (big eyelet)
Note I think it is important to have the tack (mast end) pulled well forward to counteract the outhaul pull which should be quite a lot (as well as down against the halyard tension) You only reef in a blow which is just the time when you want the mainsail very flat and well tensioned.
You can (and I sometimes do) sail very well reefed without the loops of rope around the sail. sometimes I only put in one at the mast end as this is where the excess sail catches the wind and billows out.
I hope I have understood your question correctly.
Good luck and happy Christmas to you olewill
 
Thanks William.
This is what I am not sure about. I take it that the big eyelets you mention should be used for the pulling down and tensioning of sail when reefing and the horizontal row of eyelets only used to tidy up the sail onced reefed?
As it was we were not using the big eyelets to pulldown the sail as there is no ropes ( penants ) in them, but all the hardware is on the boom for these ropes, (only we dont know how they should be set up) instead we just pulled the sail down by hand ( releasing the halyard of course) and tying the four horizontal short ties to the boom.
This is why I think one of these four eyelets pulled out from the sail.
The thing is we havent actually had to reef while sailing, any time we reefed, was before we left the mooring or marina, we would decide if a reef was neccessary and just put one in.
Do you see where I am comming from now?
Its how these penants should be set up on the boom hardware, i,e pullys, blocks etc, and used correctly that we want to know, so we can reef properly.
Thanks. Eamonn.
 
One system:

You have two hooks, aka ramshorns, at the gooseneck, one for each reef, that the luff cringles are pulled down to.

Towards the end of the boom you have two cheek blocks with also with the means of attaching the ends of the reefing lines, typically on a short track such as are shown in this picture
>>>>>>>>>
Slabreeinggear.jpg


It also shows some ramshorn hooks, upside down!

The reefing lines are attached to the eyes just visible on the back end of the blocks, go under the boom, up though the cringles in the leech down round the cheek blocks, which are positioned to maintain adequate tension along the new foot (feet), then forward to cleats on the front end of the boom or via turning blocks to cleats on the mast or even back to the cockpit.

The rows of eyelets across the sail are not reinforced to take any load and are there for you to tidy up the loose sail loosely.

Another sytem uses single lines though both luff and leech cringles rather than the ramshorns thats single line reefing!

Some booms have provision for the lines from the leech to enter it at the end and run internally sometimes with multi purchase systems inside the boom.

Sorry that is rather breif but hopefully give you some ideas.
 
Hello Eamon it sounds like your challenge is to figure out how the boat was set up for reefing and then you can decide if you want something different.
Rams horns at the gooseneck are common. They rely on you dropping the sail and going forward to hook the tack eyelet over the ramshorn then pulling onn the halyard to stop the eyelet slipping off.
If you don't have them a simple alternative is several turns of rope through the eyelet and around the mast pulling the eyelet into linne with the luff normal position. You then take several turns around the boom to react against the halyard tension and hold the eyelet near the boom.
On my boat I have a system somewhat unncommon where a rope runs from a point(saddle) on the side of the mast well forward and below the boom up through the eyelet and down to another saddle or pulley again below and forward from there the rope runs to a turning block on the deck back to a halyard winch. When not reefed the rope lays against the sail near the luff. This enables the reef to be pulled in from the cockpit without going to the mast base.
This rope when reefed pulls the tack eyelet at about 45 degrees both down and forward so reacts against halyard pull and outhaul pull.
Some boats have a hook on a small tackle that simply pulls the eyelet down.Often this hook is used for a cunningham eye tensioner.
(ie stretches the bottom of the sail down to increase luff tension and kind of reefs in about 3 inches of the front of the sail for strong winds) This from of reefing relies on a very strong bolt rope or slider in the track near the boom to hold the sail luff into the mast to react against the outhaul. (And usually fails to hold well)
OK so that is some variation on the tack (forward reefing poinnt)

Now the requirents for the outhaul reef point are similar. The eyelet must be pulled down to react aganst the mainsheet pull and aft to flatten the sail.
A rope is usually passed through the eyelet (and left in place when not reefed) which terminates at the boom so0metimmes just a knot around the boom. The other end usually goes arounnd a pulley on the side of the boom or sometimes through a pulley on the end of the boom then forward. It can go to a cleat on the side of the boom well forward where you can reach is or better still to a turning block under the gooseneck another block on the deck and back tp the halyard winches.
The actual direction of pull is important. I reckon about 45 degrees ie mid way between pulling aft and pulling down. The side mounted pulleys are often on a track to enable adjustment fore and aft.
I prefer to see the tied end of the rope also pulling at 45 degrees but you can get away with tied straight down if the pulley is well aft so the agregate is 45 degrees of pull.

Again if you are moored you can acheive a good reef by several turns of rope through the eyelet down to the boom and then several turns stretching the sail pulling aft. No hardware needed.

However for my sailing where the wind often comes up during a race (called the Fremantle Doctor) (cos he cools us down) coupled with a tender boat with large main I need to be able to pull a reef in quickly from the cockpit without losing any ground to windward.
Hence I don't bother with tieing the sail up.
The reefing is also very nice when I take guests for a sail you can turn a rotten windy day into a reasonable sail by reducing sail area.
We seem to hav estandard 20 knots here every afternoon. Did I mention 32 degrees max today. I have had a swim around the boat but mostly collecting mussels for friends for Christmas. I just mention that to rub it in. good luck olewill
 
This is one diagram (care of Z-spars) that shows one way of rigging a reefing pennant.
z160boom2.gif

It omits the rams horn for clarity where 'A' is hooked on when taking in a reef.

This might NOT be correct for your boat as it would help if you could say exactly what is on the boom at the moment. Have you got any 'eyes' on the boom? Is there provision for the reefing pennant to go inside the boom and exit at the aft end via a sheave? Are there cheek blocks on the boom either side? Have you got a rams horn at the forw'd end of the boom. Is the sail loose footed? If you have a foot bolt rope, are there eyes in the foot of the sail under each (aft) reefing eye?

If you give these details an accurate description of how the reefing pennants should be lead and used can be given.

Happy Christmas!
 
Seasons greetings Eamon. All the above is good advise. On some boats there are "horns" on the gosseneck fitting to attatch the large eye to on others a pennant is used at both ends.

The order of reefing should be
1,check topping lift is holding the boom up /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

2,lower halyard enough to fix the "tack"(front) eyelet onto the horns or tighten the "tack"penant.

3,re tension the halyard (make sure the mainsheet is slackened)

4,tighten the "clew" (back)penant.

5,slacken the topping lift if neccesary and pass a cord through the small reefing eyes to keep the sail tidy.Some people use bungy cord to tidy the middle part of the sail so if one of the penants is accidently released it will stretch rather than damage your sail again.

The important thing is that the weight is taken on the tack and clewe eyes not the smaller reefing eyes.
 
Hi Eamon,

This may seem a bit of a cop out, but when we purchased our boat a few months ago it was bare and I was also unsure of rigging the reefing pennants.

The best investment I made was a couple of hours labour for a friendly professional rigger to check the rigging and bend sails, he quickly spotted a problem with and corrected the set up for the reefing pennants.

IMHO it was money well spent

Good Luck
 
Again thanks to all who replied to my post.
I am now starting to get the picture, but just to recap, on my boom port side aft end there is a track identical to the bottom one on the photo in above post, and forward on the boom there is two cleats, quite close to each other, but one slightly higher than the other, these are about 26" back from gooseneck, and there is a s/s ramshorn hooks at the gooseneck, and there is a slider groove running the length of the bottom of boom, which apart from an adjustable eye for the kickstrap mount, has two almost triangle shaped bronze fittings, which can be unlocked by a knurled head screw and slid along the boom, these have a hole in them, presumably for a rope to be tied into, or a shackle pin.
On the starboard side of the boom is a cleat near the fore end which in for securing the out haul rope once tensioned.
The aft end of the boom has a swivle plate which the main sheet and topping lift attach to.
So would I be right to assume that the aft reefing penant end is permenantly secured to the leech eye on sail with a big knot etc, and dropes through one of the pullys on the boom track, runs from there to be tied off at one of the forward cleats, and because of the ramshorn there wont be a penant at the luff end? would I then tie off the four eyes to tidy up the unused reefed part of the sail? So what is the second pully on the boom track for, and the second cleat at the fore end of boom and the two triangles under the boom for?
Thanks again everyone. Hope you have a wonderful xmas, Eamonn.
 
You're nearly right. Take the clew reefing line from the pulley on the boom (mine has an eye to attach it to), up to the first cringle, then back down through the pulley, and along to one of the cleats at the front end of the boom. The other pulley is for the second reefing line, exactly the same set up but through the second cringle.

This gives you more purchase.

You are right that there is no need for a line at the luff, because you will be at the mast lowering the halliard and pulling the sail down to put the (first or second) cringle over the ramshorn.

Then use thin line to neaten up the sail by tying the reefing points round the boom, along the sail. Using reef knots, natch.

On my boat, the halliard goes to the cockpit, but the reefing lines only go to the mast. There is therefore a certain amount of toing and froing, but we generally only day sail so if we think a reef is likely to be needed, it is done while on the mooring.

I would like to lead the reefing lines (as described above, they are not through-boom) back to the cockpit also, but suspect there would be too much friction in the system due to the number of direction changes. Unless anyone would like to tell me I am wrong.....
 
Re: Reefing pennants for slab reefing

The large eyes on the luff (nearest the mast) should be put on an inverted U horn mounted at the gooseneck. If this is missing check there isn't a hole in the gooseneck for it. If there is get one off the spar-maker and fit it. If there is no provision for a reefing horn, you'll have to rig a tackle to the base of the mast.

The eyes on the leech should take the reefing pennants proper - in most modern boats, with loose-footed mains, these are tied round the boom and then through the eye and back through the end of the boom (usually there is provision for 3 or 4 ropes in the boom-end one of which is the outhaul) and then back, inside the boom, to the gooseneck end of the boom.

The reefing cringles, to which you refer are seldom, if ever, used on a high-incidence Bermudan main.

If you have none of the fittings, and do have a Bermudan main, you would be well advised to fit single-line reefing.
 
Eamonn

Some good advice has already been given, particularly in relation to NOT putting any tension on the eyelets in the centre of the sail; only those on the front and back edges are reinforced to take the considerable forces involved.

Where do you sail from on the Clyde? If it's one of the marinas or clubs I'm sre there will be others there who can show you how it's done on their boats which should be much easier to understand than any amount of words on here.
 
If it's any help I have all my reefing pennants led back to the cockpit: 3 reefs (luff and leech) and Cunningham, 7 strings in all, and it works fine. All the pennants pull in easily by hand and letting them out does not require over-hauling first, but it does require the halyard to be winched. Next year there will be 8 since the new main has a leech Cunningham as well which is just calling out for a new bit of string...

The first two leech reefing pennants run inside the boom, but the third is outside. It did take a bit of fiddling about with angles to make sure everything runs OK, but it is a system which for me works well, with everything done from the cockpit.
 
If you have ramshorn(s) for securing the tack cringle(s) then you may find it advantageous to use a couple of suitably sized s/s rings fastened together with a very short loop of sewed-together webbing which passes through each tack cringle. I found it easier to hook an s/s ring onto the ramshorn rather than hooking on the cringle itself. The 'lazy' ring, being on the other side of the cringle, just anchors the webbing loop.

If using this method the webbing loop needs to be as short as possible so that the tack cringle is held very close to the gooseneck to make sure that the strain along the foot of the sail is taken on the cringle and not the first sail slide.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you have ramshorn(s) for securing the tack cringle(s) then you may find it advantageous to use a couple of suitably sized s/s rings fastened together with a very short loop of sewed-together webbing which passes through each tack cringle. I found it easier to hook an s/s ring onto the ramshorn rather than hooking on the cringle itself. The 'lazy' ring, being on the other side of the cringle, just anchors the webbing loop.

If using this method the webbing loop needs to be as short as possible so that the tack cringle is held very close to the gooseneck to make sure that the strain along the foot of the sail is taken on the cringle and not the first sail slide.

[/ QUOTE ]

and, if I may make so bold, should a little vertical movement take place at the leech cringle due to inexactly placed cheek blocks it won't matter so much. (I hope!) /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
Having recently been researching a new mainsail, I have established that the luff rings on webbing are variously referred to as "spectacles" or "ear rings" and I can confirm they are much easier to get on the rams horn when putting in a reef out at sea.
 
It's true that spectacles make it easier to get the tack down on to the rams horn - but do check that you are still able to get the foot tension tight and that having the foot further back doesn't put creases in the lower part of the sail. With a reef in you want the sail to be nice and flat.
 
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