reefing lines

[JBA]

Hello all,

Does anyone have a technique for securing reefing line tails while reefed?

Thanks, JBA

[Neil Gordon]

Hello all,

Does anyone have a technique for securing reefing line tails while reefed?

Thanks, JBA

Same as with halyards, I just coil them, take a bight from the working end and hang it in the same clear the line is made off to.

[Joe Myerson]

Same as with halyards, I just coil them, take a bight from the working end and hang it in the same clear the line is made off to.

What Neil doesn't say in his response, other than meaning to say "cleat" instead of "clear," is that this is done in miniature. My reefing lines hang in sort of mini-hanks, tightly coiled around my hand or almost that tightly, but secured just like any other line secured on a cleat.

--Joe

[Markst95]

I have my reefing line tied to a cleat on the boom. After I tie if off I tuck the excess up into the reefed part of the sail.

[Steve Laume]

I am in the sail fold stuffing camp.

Usually when conditions warrant reefing I don't want to be fussing to long about getting it done.

This applies double for the second, Steve.

[Dean Abramson]

I recently installed two eye straps about 20" apart on the bottom of my boom, the forward one pretty much all the way forward. I have tied a piece of light line between these straps. That is my "clothesline," to which I tie the bitter end of coils.

With excess line from three reefing lines (two of which go to a single cleat, so it's very hard to hang from the already-busy cleat) and a boom vang, it comes in very handy. Low tech, works well.

When dropping the main, I throw most of my slack lines (aft of the cleats) into the folds of the sails. The clothes line is just for the little bit of excess line at the cleats when no reefs are in, and the progressively lots more excess line when I am reefed.

Dean