Reefing while underway

[casampson]

Does anyone have any advice on how to reef after you have started sailing? When I started out this morning there was virtually no wind. Two hours later we were dealing with 20 mph and a nasty chop. I needed to reef but honestly didn’t know how to go about it. My boat is a CD25 with a 6 hp Tohatsu. Thanks.

[Frenchy]

Hi ya Chris- I "cheat" a little and start the engine and make the autopilot head the boat into the wind. A tiller
pilot is a really nice thing to have for this. - Jean

[PortTack]

There's a great article here with some tips and thoughts for reefing. Definitely a skill to practice with your crew (or solo!) so you feel comfortable doing it at a moments notice!

https://www.cruisingworld.com/seamanshi ... fing-main/

[John Nebilak]

When I am by myself I often will heave to. It takes pressure off the mains'l and stabilizes the boat.

[Neil Gordon]

When I am by myself I often will heave to. It takes pressure off the mains'l and stabilizes the boat.

I'm with John. Heave to and the boat settles down nicely. Do it on a starboard tack and pretty much all of the traffic will be obligated to avoid you. With the boat settled down, it's easy enough to ease the main halyard and tuck in the reef. It works in reverse, too, for when you want to shake out the reef.

Just be sure you have sufficient sea room... hove to you'll be moving slowly but you'll still be moving.

[Steve Laume]

I tend not to heave to just to reef. I like to reef on a starboard tack so I am working on the high side at the mast. I suppose this also gives me the right of way but this is seldom an issue. I sail the boat on a close hauled course and set up the wind vane or auto pilot to handle the steering. I then ease off the main until it begins to luff. Then release the vang and set the reef at the mast. Once the reef is in, I head back to the cockpit and adjust my course and sail trim. Then I can deal with tying up the foot of the sail if I care to bother.

This is much simpler than heaving to and the boat still stays nice and steady while I work, Steve.

[John Stone]

I tend not to heave to just to reef. I like to reef on a starboard tack so I am working on the high side at the mast. I suppose this also gives me the right of way but this is seldom an issue. I sail the boat on a close hauled course and set up the wind vane or auto pilot to handle the steering. I then ease off the main until it begins to luff. Then release the vang and set the reef at the mast. Once the reef is in, I head back to the cockpit and adjust my course and sail trim. Then I can deal with tying up the foot of the sail if I care to bother.

This is much simpler than heaving to and the boat still stays nice and steady while I work, Steve.

That’s exactly the way I do too.

[s2sailorlis]

I heave-to as in those building conditions I’d have to leave helm, grab auto tiller down below, plug it in, set it up etc. I normally single hand and don’t have my auto tiller ready to go.

If I had a larger boat with an auto helm ready to I’d probably do it differently.

If the conditions are forecasted to be gusty or north of 12 knots I reef. 12 knots and under I’m fine alone with full main and 130 Genny...

[csoule13]

Even better than all of this - practice while still tied up to the dock. Raise the sail, and slowly and methodically work through the process. And I mean everything. Start in the cockpit as if you were sailing and do everything you need to do. Reverse the process to shake out the reef. Lather, rinse repeat. It sucks to be out in a building wind getting the living hell scared out of yourself, and only then go "Wait, how do I do this, where is the reefing line, wait, why won't this budge?" Happened to my old man and myself on a sail the first year he owned his boat. No fun.

Chris

[fmueller]

I’m with Steve and John. Tiller pilot and ease the main. If I had a vane, no doubt that would be it. If it’s really building I might roll the jib in a little too, the point being, you just need to be underway enough for the rudder to have control and hold your boats attitude close to the wind. The main does not need to be fully eased to be reefed and in fact it’s probably better if it’s not flogging madly, even if only to lower your sense of urgency a wee bit while you go about your business.

But I can just as easily heave to and if I didn’t have the TP or if it was out of commission that would be the trick. I used to roll the jib in and motor right into the wind flogging the main, but for the tiller pilot to be able to hold head to wind, I had to have quite a bit of throttle and that makes for a pretty wild ride up at the mast and the main floggs like mad. So that’s the least best option for me now.

The fact of the matter is seamanship requires you to understand all the ways you can depower your rig and practice all of them until they become non issues. Once you do get the reef in you really want to make sure you have good tension on the halyard, and good tension aft as well as downward on the reefing outhall ... otherwise you’ll just be flying a bag ... exactly what you don’t want when it’s snotty.

[John Stone]

You don’t have to be headed into the wind to reef the main. I have reefed going downwind many times. It’s easier if you can reduced some pressure on the main though. I also have a Tides Marine Strong Track. It dramatically reduces friction caused by the mains’l slugs in the mast track when there is wind pressure on the mains’l.

As others have pointed out I have also reefed when hove-to. But I think the steps Steve L. described, which are essentially the steps I use to include reefing on starboard tack, are the simplest, safest, and quickest. If you have an auto pilot or wind vane there is simply no need to heave-to to reef the main.

Reefing is not hard. It’s safe and rather straight forward. Like many other offshore sailors I can’t count the times I have reefed alone at night. It’s second nature. And I have to go to the mast to reef. I don’t have a furling jib nor do I have a bow pulpit, and I manage just fine. It doesn’t take a Superman. It’s bread and butter stuff...a basic but critical sailing skill. Once you have done it a few times it will become second nature for you too. And Cape Dories sail very nicely when properly reefed.

I think Chris’ suggestion to practice at the dock is a very good idea. I am embarrassed I didn’t think to recommend it earlier. If you go back through my blog posts during our recent voyage to the West Indies you will see I did just that (thought on a mooring vice at a dock) with the storm trys’l. Also, during the passage home I had some light wind one morning after being hove to all night. I took the time to run up the trys’l again to make sure I had the steps down and all the leads worked out before the need to employ the trys’l might arise.

[Jim Walsh]

As my friend Neil Gordon has stated on our forum “reef early and reef often”.
On anything other than a daysail I have preventers rigged port and starboard to prevent an uncontrolled gybe. They also keep the boom from sweeping me off the boat, or cracking my skull, as I go forward to put a reef in. I much prefer to reef when on a starboard tack but sea conditions and expediency sometimes dictate otherwise. As long as I can ease the main and keep it off the spreaders as much as is practicable I’m good. I have large tack hooks port and starboard and my main has earrings which I much prefer to tack lines, but we all have our preferences. I never secure the bundt of the main (on the advice of Hal Roth who also rigged twin preventers) although I still have reef grommets I no longer rig the reefing pennants, and haven’t for several years.
Putting a reef in the main becomes second nature but I’ve learned to take a moment to go over my mental checklist before leaving the security of the cockpit offshore.

[casampson]

Thanks for all the great advice. I'm going to start by practicing reefing while hove to. I will also try reefing while close hauled on a starboard tack, but have no auto-pilot to keep me on course. Will tying off the tiller work just as well?

Chris

[fmueller]

Chris,

Tying off the tiller is probably not a reliable option, although no harm in trying it.

Reefing while hove to is, and heaving to is invaluable for many other reasons ... so in your case, you want to practice and get familiar with heaving to first, especially to see the attitude you boat makes if you ease the main which you will want to do if reefing is the reason for heaving to in the first place. Classic heaving to involves both backing the jib AND sheeting the main to some extent. Each boat is different and wind velocity and sea state affect just where the equilibrium point will be. My 27 heaves to best with less than full jib and the main sheeted in quite far (and the helm hard over), so I roll up some jib. To heave to and thllen ease the main I need very little jib. If you don’t have jib furling I think you can probably ease the jib and not have it tight to windward and achieve the same reduction in bow down force.

So you have a two part exercise to work on. I like the suggestion of reefing practice at a dock ( if wind angle allows) ... but you can also do the same thing much more simply at mooring or anchor. I have done exactly that when overnighting and the next day is setting up to be heavy ... so you just throw in the reef on the hook ... by the way - shaking a reef out - same fire drill but in reverse.


Jim,

The one good reason for securing at least a few of the bunts aside from windage or even just aesthetics is to keep heavy rain from accumulating in a fold. Less likely on loose footed sails.

Cheers. Fred

[Steve Laume]

Will tying off the tiller work just as well?

Chris

NO. Having some sort of self steering or a competent crew member steering the boat will work better.

That said, you can certainly set a reef with the tiller tied off. You will want to set the boat up so there is no chance of tacking. That means, you will be sailing very close to the wind, with the main luffing a bit, to create a minimal amount of speed. This will also take the pressure off of the main sail slugs. You may have to do the reef in stages while going back to adjust the helm. It is still perfectly doable, Steve.