single line reefing.. hook at the gooseneck

[gyoungs]

Anybody got any tips on the best way to connect a hook to the gooseneck area for catching a cringle? I am not too keen to pop rivet the mast and was wondering about attaching a hook under the head of the bolt that acts as the pivot for the boom.

 

[alahol2]

For 10 years on my last boat I used a simple stainless hook tied around the boom/gooseneck with 2 loops of rope. It was a lot easier to use and, I suspect, easier on the sail than the fixed 'horns' on my present boat. I may well remove my current horns and tie on another hook.

 

[poter]

Don't quite understand the problem, if you have single line reefing why do you need a hook at the gooseneck?

Can you explain your reefing line system?


poter

 

[William_H]

I think it is important when reefing to provide some pull forward as well as down at the clew (gooseneck). If not then when the tack is pulled back to flatten the foot you are relying on the sail bolt rope in the track to resist the pull and can get a sail distortion as the luff is pulled back. For this reason I prefer a couple of turns of rope around the mast through the reefing tack eyelet to supplement the cunningham hook often used.. A horn is quite goo0d provided it is close to the mast to do the sam e job. I use 2 line reefing with the tack line coming from a saddle on one side of the mast well forward and below the top of the boom, through the eyelet and down to a similar saddle or pulley on the other side thence down to the deck to turn toward the halyard winches. It means I can reef from the cockpit with a very flat foot (bottom) of the sail and the job of tidying up the loose flap of sail hanging under the boom is optional. This from one who reefs a lot under way while racing in a very tender 21 fter with a large mainsail. regards will

 

[ytd]

I agree with Poter. The whole point of single line reefing is that you don't have to go on deck and hook up the luff. You just winch in the reefing line while letting the halyard out. And I can get the foot as flat as I like by putting more tension on the reefing line.

 

[stevebrassett]

How about one of these.

http://marinestore.co.uk/, then search for reef hooks.

 

[macd]

Equally mystified why this is an issue with single line reefing, but personally I hate those damnd hooks: when sailing single-handed, as often as not by the time you've got to the winch the damn cringle has fallen off. Now I just use a rope strop around a pair of cleats, one on either side of the mast a little below the boom, which I believe is what some boats used in the old days. Works a treat.

 

[Guest]

Go onto Seal Saing assn website.

Get copy of 2004/4 newsletter.

This will sort ot your reefing wit=h a magic method

 

[Ships_Cat]

A couple have mentioned the difficulty with the reefing tack cringle in the sail and keeping it on the horn until the halyard is tensioned. I find that especially so without dropping some slides of the reefed part of the sail out of the track.

While is perhaps a bit of thread drift - as an alternative to using a line to pull and hold the tack down, I think that the idea of having a piece of soft webbing through the cringle with a ss ring at the end of the webbing each side of the sail is pretty well known (the ring going over the horn instead of the cringle). But what works better than the rings, in my opinion, and is not often mentioned, is to just have a loop of webbing - the webbing being passed through the cringle and around the front of the luff and then sewn so a loose loop is formed. Then during reefing the webbing is just hooked over the horn - having no weight it does not seem so inclined to fall off, plus the loop length can have an inch or two of free length so that it is not a mission getting the reef tack cringle pulled down onto the horn over the folds of reefed sail (otherwise I find, with a main of heavy sailcloth, it is sometimes easier to just drop a couple of slides out of the track to get a couple of folds out of the way, which is inconvenient).

John

 

[gyoungs]

Thanks all for the advice. I have not installed single line reefing yet and am trying to decide what to do. food for thought. cheers G

 

[tome]

John

The webbing arrangements which you refer to with the ss rings either end are known around here as reefing spectacles. I have one set for each of our 3 reefs. As always, there's an easy way of doing this and I'll describe my own method.

Being a British boat, my sail number starts GBR so my reefs are green, blue and red in that order for first, second and third. I've never been a fan of single line reefing so mine is a conventional slab arrangement, and the 3 reef lines are coloured according to my GBR convention.

The main halyard is led back to a cockpit clutch. At the point where the first reefing specs can just be fitted over the horn, there is a green whipping on the halyard. The cockpit crew release the halyard until the green whipping is at the clutch. The on-deck crew can then get the specs over the horn, but need to pull it downwards so there's little chance of it coming adrift. Ahead of the green whipping, there's a white one which they then winch through the clutch to tension the main.

This is repeated with a blue and then red whipping for successive reefs, each having a corresponding white whipping ahead for re-tensioning.

Works for us, but hadn't considered the complication of a NZ sail number. Perhaps you'll just have to grit your teeth and pretend to be British!

Cheers
Tom

 

[Ships_Cat]

Hi Tom

Well, for me, the NZL works out like this for colour coding the halyard.

First Reef Colour Code - <font color="red">N</font>one
Second Reef Colour Code - <font color="red">Z</font>ilch
Third Reef Colour Code - <font color="red">L</font>ost

Obviously not very well organised am I? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John

 

[Robin]

Hi John

The webbing is a good idea but even better is to do the job properly and take tack lines back through clutches as well as the clew & halyard, that way you do the job in the dry under the hood! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif We still use spectacles like Tome, 2 x S/S rings with webbing between but these now are just the attachment points for the tack lines that go back to the cockpit.

Robin

 

[Ships_Cat]

Ah, but us sailors of Norwegian descent are much hardier than others Robin. Beside its gives us a real reason for always wearing our harnesses, tethers, lifejackets, designer boots and wet weather gear instead of just sitting around in the cockpit in them /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John

 

[Robin]

Tee hee /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Presumably everything else is done at the mast as well? I could never see the point of having the halyard & even clew reef lines back as on some boats but leaving it necessary still to hook on the tack rings. Maybe it is different where a boat has a number of crew, but for us always just 2 of us that makes the job difficult to do by one alone whereas it can be done if everything is all together either at the mast (for Norwegian-Kiwi masochists) or in the cockpit (for Anglo-Yank wimps).

Robin
Wimp of the year 2001

 

[Thistle]

Ah! The delights of a 23' boat. I can stand in the companionway and reach forward to the mast to put the spectacles on the horns and to pull in the reefing lines. At the same time the halyard and topping lift, on the coachroof, are in easy reach. The whole job completed from a secure and comfortable position.