Slab Reefing Headsails

[BMP_Express]

So we're considering getting a slab reef put into a new (hanked on) J2 to reduce it's area by ~30 %. This way it'll serve as a J2 / J3 and be our workhorse short handed offshore. I can't for the life of me find any information / photos of yachts sailing with their J2 reefed. Does anyone have any photos of yachts with this setup or any good info about how best to do it?

 

[Poignard]

Old School Foresail Reefing

 

[PlankWalker]

I think the problem is, that if it is sailed in the reefed position in heavy weather,
the foot in its reefed position will stretch.
This may give a bad shape to the sail in the unreefed situation.
This is no problem to an old school boat with heavy canvas ,
but as you talk of J2 & J3 you're probably not of that ilk.

Plank

 

[Ingwe]

The reason you are probably struggling to find pics is with the way most of them zip up the foot they aren't that easy to spot. The best set of pics I could find I can't do a direct link to but if you scroll down to post 117 on this SA thread you will see a series of good pics of what you are after - https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?/topic/160936-jeanneau-sunfast-3600/&page=2

They have been used very successfully on a lot of short handed boats. The post above regarding stretch is completely out of date as if your having a sail like this made it should be in either 3di or a fibre path type sail and the designers will align the tape / fibers so that the reaf point is just as strong as the foot.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

The genoa reefed tends to act as a bit of a water scoop as the waves get up. I sailed with a working jib, having a high clew, that had the 'slab' reef in it. This allowed the inevitable wave slap when beating to be avoided. Also improved visibility significantly, which may be a a consideration when sailing single handed. On your new reefed genoa, consider a tack line to raise the foot off the foredeck.

 

[BMP_Express]

Cheers for the replies all!

The reason you are probably struggling to find pics is with the way most of them zip up the foot they aren't that easy to spot. The best set of pics I could find I can't do a direct link to but if you scroll down to post 117 on this SA thread you will see a series of good pics of what you are after - https://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?/topic/160936-jeanneau-sunfast-3600/&page=2

They have been used very successfully on a lot of short handed boats. The post above regarding stretch is completely out of date as if your having a sail like this made it should be in either 3di or a fibre path type sail and the designers will align the tape / fibers so that the reaf point is just as strong as the foot.

Those photos are just what we were after thank you! The zip explains a lot about to keep the foot tidy which was one of our main worries.

The genoa reefed tends to act as a bit of a water scoop as the waves get up. I sailed with a working jib, having a high clew, that had the 'slab' reef in it. This allowed the inevitable wave slap when beating to be avoided. Also improved visibility significantly, which may be a a consideration when sailing single handed. On your new reefed genoa, consider a tack line to raise the foot off the foredeck.

This will be a working jib with a higher clew to start with which makes sense. The boat's only small so vis isn't too much of an issue for it.

There's a photo of the old bag it's replacing below:

 

[ibbo]

I had a reefing no2 on a 26' Ecume de Mer. It was useful a few times.
My technique was to lower the halyard and change the clew. Change the lazy sheet on the clew, Tack. Then tidy up, and transfer the other sheet.
All done without depowering.

I expect on bigger boats the technique may not work so well.

Mike

 

[BMP_Express]

Cheers Mike - that sounds like a sensible way to do it, similar enough to a normal tack peel. We're 26 ft too so it'll probably be fairly similar.

We'll get some quotes in and see what the damage will be.

Once we get some photos with the sail I'll post them up here.

 

[Steve The Seagull]

Reefing jibs can work really well. I have done them on a variety of boats, in the Multihull scene they are very popular, but more as a J4 style setup. Below are some photos of some Mini jibs we did last year. These are 2 reefs due to the limit on sails in the class rules, meaning 1 jib has to do 0 to storm jib! I will post some other photos when I find them of some Minis, also the Figaros have just gone over to a reefing J2 in an effort to save cost by dropping the J3.

Thing to remember, as a J2 they will be a touch heavy and when reefed to a J3 they will be a bit too deep, requiring care to sheet them correctly to combat this.

Zips are a must if you plan to use the sail a lot, and they must be setup so can be used one either tack. Tie up eyes are still needed aswell, they can come in handy when trying to quickly bundle the sail up before zipping it away.

Another use with the sail reefed is as staysail when using a spinnaker reaching, they can nicely help keep the bow down if set right.

To put the reef in there are a variety of methods. What I like to do is run a tack line, starting at a cleat or cluth in the cockpit, to a low fricton ring at the forestay base, then up to reef tack eye. This means the reefing of the luff can be done from the cockpit. For the clew, if you can tack then running the windward sheet up to the new clew and then tacking into the reef can work. If not, for example fetching or close reaching, then it's best to set up a small hobble. Ease the clew onto the hobble, move the sheet up to the reef clew, drop the halyard, pull in on the tack line, sheet in the new clew and finnally detatch the hobble. Zipping or tieing the reef away can be easily done once the sail is set and flying on the reef. It's very important to spend time with the sail setup on the pontoon or mooring and work out the correct car position for the reef and mark the halyard and tackline positon.

 

[Steve The Seagull]

More photos

 

[Kukri]

Did it for forty years, on the staysail of a couple of gaff cutters. Shift a sheet or if they are paired hook a handy billy into the clew and heave to a bit. Ease the halyard (put a coloured whipping on the “new position plus a little slack”) and change the tack over. Harden up the halyard, free the handy billy and tie the reef points into a nice tidy rolled up foot (on a good day; if a sea breaks over the deck as you are doing it, you won’t be so tidy).

In any case remember the excellent advice of RD Graham and JEH Tew, in “A Manual for Small Yachts*” - “We prefer to reef the staysail early in the proceedings”.?

*the standard cruising textbook after “Yacht Cruising” by Claud Worth and before “Cruising under Sail” by Eric Hiscock.