Single line reefing

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MIKE_MCKIE

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Looking at fitting to my 35 y/o Bowman 26. Reefing down can be accommodated without too much problem, however shaking out a reef/hoisting the main poses what, at the moment, is a major problem. The main runs on nylon sliding lugs, and while they will happily fall out of the track when lowering the main, they most definitely need a helping hand going back into the track when hoisting. Any ideas for a solution please? The only one I have had so far is to remove the slugs & hope that the luff rope will A) fit the track & B) not give too much friction to work properly.
Any & all advice gratefully recevived.
TIA
Mike
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Try fitting a gate so the slugs dont fall out and rig a single line connecting (the lower) the slugs to the sail so that the sail can fold down leaving the slugs in place. There are pictures on this site. I've done the same thing on my 25ft Jaguar and I'm very pleased with it.
 
agree , they shouldn't fall out. There's a bit missing...how on Earth do boats get sailed for 35 years, with these anomolies?
I've got a 1978 boat with so many unanswered questions.- but they're getting fixed now. (then, when I die, someone will say "what kind of effin looney had this boat... and so it goes on)
 
I like the idea of lower slider on a string so it is released from the luff when the sail is pulled down as in reefing.
An alternative might be to do without lower slugs. If the luff is tight enough it should not matter too much.
I have always used just the bolt rope in the mast track. I have a feeder to guide the bolt rope in and don't get much difficulty hoisting the main. Of course reef and unreef is then very simple.

Try single line reefing by all means but I seem to have influenced a few friends recently to change to 2 line reefing. Less friction more power. However the most important aspect is to get the front reefing line to pull the sail eyelet forward as well as down and the aft reefing line to pull the clew eyelet back as well as down. A Very tight foot of the sail is vital.

I sailed recently on a McGregor 26 on a gusty evening. He reefed the main using 1 line reefing. There was insufficient tension in the foot. I fitted a piece of rope at the aft end of the boom to pull the sail clew back.(and another arounf the mast to pull the tack forward) This helped enormously as a little later when on the wind this extra piece of rope let go. leaving the foot loose with a lot of camber. Before I realised the rope had let go the boat became totally unmanageable and would not tack or turn to sail up wind. To the extent that because of traffic congestion we started the motor to get out of trouble. It emphasised yet again that you must get that mainsail flat and tight when reefed.
good luck olewill
 
As MarkS says; if the last two or three slugs are attached to a line rather than directly to the sail it allows the bunt at the tack to move out of the way without the need to release the slugs from the track. When you shake out the reef and rehoist, the line tightens up and pulls the sail up to the slugs. I had this system on Adriana and it works well.
However, I think single line reefing on more than one reef leads to huge friction and miles of line. A simple jiffy reefing system which can be handled at the mast leads to better sail set. IMHO, of course.
 
That sounds a canny idea & well worth a try, thanks very much. Definitely got to be better than current slab arrangement at the mast! With the dear old Solent being a very lumpy cruising ground, especially when it's blowy, the less time I spend crawling around the decks, the more likely I am to manage to stay onboard!

Cheers
Mike
 
Sorry, slight mis description there. The boat has slab reefing and the slugs come out of the track because I remove the split pin and drop the slugs out when reefing to allow the sail to set better. Agree that there were (and probably still are) a number of things that could be improved, but only had the boat 5 years, so there are some still in progress so to speak. Cockpit drain seacocks that open & close is top of the priority right now, originals were crap house plumbing valves so spindle has dissappeared, thus rendering one valve u/s in the mostly closed position, just what we need! The other one still works but is getting changed to Marelon anyway. When I finally shuffle off, some other bloke can have the priviledge of saying "what the hell is this rubbish?" It all keeps the chandlers in business I guess!
Cheers
Mike
 
I might try without the lower slugs, but do not believe it will set sufficiently well. The boat is not too brilliant to weather in a stiff breeze anyway, so need all the help I can get. I have measured the boltrope & will check the track next time down, as I reckon that may be the easiest way to go, with a feeder at the bottom.
However I will also give the moving slug idea a try & take the best/easiest option, subject to sail set.
Had a go in a friends MacGregor several years back & found it very hard work to sail anything like decently, and as soon as it started getting up a bit we were basically back on the engine. Mind a 75hp obm can certainly get you back to the cluhouse in very short order, so maybe it wasn't all bad! (plus the owners son liked to waterski off the back, so he liked it!)
Cheers
Mike
 
Having just

converted my 2nd reef to single line, after 4 years of successful use of single line on the 1st, I can bear out your observations but disagree entirely with the conclusions.

Friction is indeed the enemy of single line reefing - you must fit low-friction blocks (I used Harken Airlite 46) at leech, luff, boom and mast.
The line is enormously long - my 2nd line reef is 24m long, but in 8mm Dyneema it's no great problem to stow.

Putting in the 1st reef takes about 25 seconds and doesn't mean leaving the cockpit - quite an important consideration for one above the biblical threescore and ten and single-handing into the bargain.

As an aside, and answer to the original question, why can't you put a stop in the track so that the slugs don't come out? That's what my maintrack uses though plastic slides were too fragile and I've ended up with Bainbridge Oilite slides.
 
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