Two reefs / single line

[Daydream believer]

Never been a fan of them, don't use ours. If the OP has sheet winches on the boat IMHO he would be better off learning to use them to get his sail tos et properly. Accept others have a different opinion though

To be honest sailing a boat around the BC with only 2 reef points, one reef line, and a tangle of at least 3 lines coming off the clew of the headsail does not sound promising to me. I think he would be better off getting a good, relaible, standard setup and learning how to make best use of it.

I often have 3 lines on the clew of my headsail . However, they are not because the car gets stuck or because i want to heave too, (A Hanse does not heave too properly) They are set up as barber haulers to get a better leech tension off wind.
I have 3 reefs ( specified after being caught in a full on F9) but in 10 years i have never needed the third one since& have sailed in winds of 30-40 kts quite a few times.I doubt that the Bristol Channel is any different to the southern North sea & the Dover strait etc. Best thing about the ST is its wide wind range without need to furl.

 

[Dutch01527]

I finished my re rigging of the reef lines and decided to run 2 single line reefs (for reef 1 and 2) both back to the cockpit. Tested it today on Cardiff bay in 15 knots of wind. Works great. I am much happier with all lines back to the cockpit.

I needed to add a extra boom block but it was worth the effort.

 

[Flica]

I have an oversize main with 4 instead of 3 reefs.
The first two are single-line, the other two conventional jiffy reefing, with horns and leech-lines.
It's done about 12,000nm with no problems.
I have to agree with the poster's comment that the big problem with single-line reefing is the lengths of string that you end up having in the cockpit, with an 8:1 gearing.
The first reef, is external, using Harken airblocks - the diagram is on the Harken USA website.
The second uses the leech reef-line within the boom.
The first reef is extremely quick and easily put in, takes > 30secs; the second is far more difficult to put on, the pulleys in the Z-Spars boom are not as freely rotating as the Harken ones.
The tails are led back to the cockpit and use the port coachroof Harken winch. To get the mainsail sufficiently flat, the last tightening has to be pulled in by the winch.

 

[[70521]]

I agree that two line would be better but I would need new boom fittings, deck fittings and clutch. I am reluctant to do too much work for occasional use if I can avoid it.

Do you ever go out in conditions where you might a second reef?

I tend to reef down to the second at the top end of a F6.

There is a third reefing point that has no reefing line, conditions will be interesting then I need to use that.

 

[TSB240]

Never been a fan of them, don't use ours. If the OP has sheet winches on the boat IMHO he would be better off learning to use them to get his sail tos et properly. Accept others have a different opinion though

To be honest sailing a boat around the BC with only 2 reef points, one reef line, and a tangle of at least 3 lines coming off the clew of the headsail does not sound promising to me. I think he would be better off getting a good, relaible, standard setup and learning how to make best use of it.

I often have 3 lines on the clew of my headsail . However, they are not because the car gets stuck or because i want to heave too, (A Hanse does not heave too properly) They are set up as barber haulers to get a better leech tension off wind.
I have 3 reefs ( specified after being caught in a full on F9) but in 10 years i have never needed the third one since& have sailed in winds of 30-40 kts quite a few times.I doubt that the Bristol Channel is any different to the southern North sea & the Dover strait etc. Best thing about the ST is its wide wind range without need to furl.

I have been using the Self Tacker on our Hanse 301 as we trashed our laminate genoa last year. I also have attached the genoa sheets to it which are very effective when sailing slightly off wind at controlling the leach of the ST. Further off the wind they stop the ST flick flacking between gooswing and being backed winded by the mainsail. I have found they were very effective for heaving to so I could make a cuppa. Crash tacking and MOB recovery is never going to be possible without recourse to the big red button and the Red and white whirly bird! Poling out the jib is made very easy and makes the boat so much steadier down wind. The self tacker comes into its own when beating hard on the wind up the narrow Menai "Cut"! No problems with tangles and Crew is happy to not have to do the grinding exercise on the winches every few minutes.