Reefing while underway

[Dick Kobayashi]

This is a really very useful discussion and I thank Chris for starting it. We sail in the same waters. And our boats are well suited to BB. The only comment I can make is that I usually clip on to something when at the mast. Reefing alone is a really essential skill as even when I have guests/untrained crew I am reefing alone.

[Steve Laume]

I like the simplicity of reefing at the mast. There will never be a problem where I have to go back and forth between the cockpit and the mast to make things work.

Dicks comment about being tethered is a given for me. I use a double tether with a 6' lead for traveling to the mast and then wrap the 3' length around the mast and clip it to a forged spinnaker bail. The other modification I have made to give me more security is adding pin rails to the lower shrouds. These things are beefy and located where I can lean back and wedge myself against them. I sometimes refer to them as butt boards instead of pin rails and that is their main function. With the short tether clipped to the mast and the butt boards I can work with both hands while at the mast. This provides a great deal of security while doing a routine job.

I do have a reef point in the staysail and that is a much more difficult job to handle. The few times that I have used it, I had already reefed down the main and things were pretty nasty by the time I felt the need to reef it. Now you are forced to venture onto the fore deck while the boat is behaving like a bronco and waves are drenching the deck. It has always been a wet and rather unsettling job, Steve.

[JD-MDR]

I did it like you all suggested . As always about 2/3 across the channel and weather helm causing the windvane extra work . I on the stbd tack let out the main till fluffing and went forward . I have single reef line but don't use it as such I pull the clew down and cleat it and then tighten the other end and cleat it then adjust the halyard. I know I will improve this soon probably with a snap shackle and earrings. It looks like the reef rings on the main won't reach a tack hook. . anyway the sequence went perfectly nice. even with for my jerry rigging. I'm fixing it slowly but not my priority. I have a inflatable pfd with teather but rarely use. Maybe I'm just careless or ignorant. I will force myself to start using it and getting used to it. The instructor took out last week kept complaning about my jerry rigging. Particularly the outhauls and topping lifts. He couldn't under stand that I can't go out and buy a bunch of new highteck stuff . . I need to finish my chainplates then I have to rebuild my gear box and v-drive . I do the rigging a little at a time . I got new sheets and control lines for the new Garhauer traveler, one of the topping lifts , I repaired the club boom and much more. I will work on the reefing system soon. I also got the line driven whisker pole from the buyer of my previous boat that I had Forespar restore for me. And I got the spinaker chute from CDSOA member Frenchy. I'm getting it shortened. So much to do . I got three Spartan Marine seacocks from another member. I wasn't exageratting when I said I'm literally spending all my income on this boat but I love it. Enough blab. "Leoma" out

[John Stone]

I did it like you all suggested . As always about 2/3 across the channel and weather helm causing the windvane extra work . I on the stbd tack let out the main till fluffing and went forward . I have single reef line but don't use it as such I pull the clew down and cleat it and then tighten the other end and cleat it then adjust the halyard. I know I will improve this soon probably with a snap shackle and earrings. It looks like the reef rings on the main won't reach a tack hook. . anyway the sequence went perfectly nice. even with for my jerry rigging. I'm fixing it slowly but not my priority. I have a inflatable pfd with teather but rarely use. Maybe I'm just careless or ignorant. I will force myself to start using it and getting used to it. The instructor took out last week kept complaning about my jerry rigging. Particularly the outhauls and topping lifts. He couldn't under stand that I can't go out and buy a bunch of new highteck stuff . . I need to finish my chainplates then I have to rebuild my gear box and v-drive . I do the rigging a little at a time . I got new sheets and control lines for the new Garhauer traveler, one of the topping lifts , I repaired the club boom and much more. I will work on the reefing system soon. I also got the line driven whisker pole from the buyer of my previous boat that I had Forespar restore for me. And I got the spinaker chute from CDSOA member Frenchy. I'm getting it shortened. So much to do . I got three Spartan Marine seacocks from another member. I wasn't exageratting when I said I'm literally spending all my income on this boat but I love it. Enough blab. "Leoma" out

JD
Sounds like you’re having real success.

The way to address the reefing rings is to have one on each side of the grommet connected by webbing through that grommet. Look closely at the picture Jim W. Posted. That’s how mine is set up too.

I recommend you lower the halyard first. Hook the earring over the horn or tied off as you are currently doing. Re tension the halyard next. Then reef the clew. Shake the reef out in reverse...clew first then luff.

If your instructor does not understand the priorities of your fiscal envirinment then maybe he or she is not the right instructor. I imagine it’s a real downer after all the work you have done having someone bitch about something they simple don’t understand or acknowledge. But you’ll figure that out.

I’m impressed by your efforts.

What are your thoughts on the CH windvane?

[Steve Laume]

Raven doesn't have ear rings on her mainsail. I used to have one in my left ear but that was a long time ago.

I use a very simple set up that allows me to control the tack of the sail at all times. It consists of a pad eye on the port side and a cleat on starboard side of the mast. Both are located below the boom. The reefing line is tied off to the pad eye and lead up through the reef grommet to the cleat. When I go to reef, I simply pull down on the reef line and tie it off to the cleat. No wrestling with an unruly main while trying to slip a ring onto the hook.

This line is long enough that I can pass it back through the sail for the second reef, once the first has been taken. No need to unhook or untie the first reef to put in the second. When shaking out the second reef the first is still in place.

I also ran my topping lift to the mast end of the boom. The original set up was all at the outboard end and made it hard to access when sailing off the wind. I now have a turning block on the outboard end with the line running forward to a cleat on the port side of the boom, up near the mast.

I want to have as much control at the mast as I can, Steve.

[JD-MDR]

What are your thoughts on the CH windvane?[/quote]
Hi John. I can't really say how I like what I think of the Cape Horn windvane yet. I know it's gonna be great. I originally just liked the looks. The other brands I see have so much hardware and I didn't want that big contraption hanging off my stern. Also I didn't want all those lines and blocks going around the cockpit. All I have now is the control lines coming out the side of the cockpit locker to the drum on the wheel. I don't know how we were so far off on the ratio . I first got a 6" drum . I couldn't understand what the problem was . Now the drum is only 2.5" and the ratio seems correct.
I'm gonna give the instructor another chance. It's not his fault he doesn't know me or anything about me. Steve is over whelming me with too much info. I'm glad all this info is saved. I think he is reefing kinda like I am. The instructor didn't like that extra lines in the way so he took it off. I put it back when he left. I think it's a good idea to have the topping lifts going to the masts. Thanks John and Steve and everyone else for all the help

[Dick Kobayashi]

Steve, That padeye/cleat system sounds brilliantly simple/ Does your pad eye match the radius of the mast or does this not matter much.

[Steve Laume]

It is a small eye with only two screws, so it doesn't need to be curved, Steve.

[JD-MDR]

[quote="JD-MDR"]. Steve is over whelming me with too much info.

Sorry Steve. Sometimes I think the whole world revolves around me. It's not even my thread

[casampson]

JD -- I know what you mean when you said you felt like you were being overwhelmed by the information presented in this thread. I sort of felt the same way, to the point where I became discouraged with my own lack of knowledge compared with some of the others on this forum. But that was temporary, and I am again most grateful for all the good advice that has been presented here. I look forward to taking some lessons this summer and improving my ability to not only reef, but to sail in a variety of conditions in general. There are a lot of things that I do well in calm weather, but lack the real skill I need when it gets windy and rough. Picking up my mooring while sailing alone comes to mind.

I think that those who cruise in bigger boats have an advantage over those who daysail, like I do, because of the sheer number of hours they are able to log at sea. I only go out a few hours every week, and that is just not enough to gain the experience needed to become a truly good sailor.

It sounds like you are on the right path with your boat, and I wish you the best in all you do.

Chris

[Dick Kobayashi]

Chris, Be not discouraged. A sail downwind to the Weweantic River mouth and up to the Rt6 bridge, anchoring and then dingying ashore for an ice cream at Kreme and Kone counts as a destination sail. And a sail to Red Brook Harbor or Quisett counts as a passage. And if venturesome, a trip up to Onset through the canal cut is memorable. There is much to be learned in short , really short, passages, especially in our area. Currently due to the ages of my grand children many voyages proceed from my mooring in Mattapoisett to procure ice cream at the town dock, followed by a swim off the boat and return to the mooring: Total elapsed time 75 to 90 minutes. But I learn something every time. On any of these seemingly simple expeditions I may need to reef, have a balky engine, tangled ropes and docking issues and more...Pack some food and stay overnight someplace on anchor - it is a confidence builder. I know it sounds weird - being 3 miles from home and utterly on your own. While doing this shut your phone off. That is, observe the protocol that the phone is for you to call others, not the other way around. This sounds like sermonizing but is not intended that way.

[mgphl52]

While doing this shut your phone off. That is, observe the protocol that the phone is for you to call others, not the other way around.

Great advice, especially for a day sail!

[tjr818]

I think that those who cruise in bigger boats have an advantage over those who daysail, like I do, because of the sheer number of hours they are able to log at sea. I only go out a few hours every week, and that is just not enough to gain the experience needed to become a truly good sailor.

I don't think that that is necessarily so, in flying or sailing, once you are underway you are just along for the ride. Take-offs and landings, sail onto and off of a mooring are some important skills that are often practiced more by day sailors than cruisers. Don't see yourself short. When learning to fly we practice a lot of touch and go landings and take-offs, many each day, you could do the same sailing onto an off of a mooring several times a day. A cruiser on sails on and off of a mooring once each passage.

[Joe Myerson]

Because the wind kicks up suddenly on Buzzards Bay, I have become fairly adept at reefing under way. The key, IMHO, is to practice heaving to. Once you've got that down, it's not too difficult.

Like Steve, I do most of it from the mast, or from the starboard side of the boom. I keep two clew reefing lines rigged permanently. Each has its own cleat on the boom.

For the tack, I have earrings rigged to the sail, because there's a pair of reefing hooks at the gooseneck. However, I'm think seriously about adopting Steve's approach--it might be easier. My topping lift is controlled from the mast, but it has always been a PITA, and one I have yet to master.

As for safety: I rarely clip on when I go onto the foredeck, even though I know I should. When I do wear a tether, I clip onto a heavyweight bale (probably a boom bale for a larger boat) at the base of the mast, which probably once connected to a cunningham. Oh, FWIW, I always wear my inflatable lifejacket.

If the wind is already up, I tuck in the first reef at the mooring. It's always easier to shake out a reef while under way.

--Joe

[John Stone]

I am with Tim on this. I see very few advantages to a larger boat when it comes to skill development. Get as much practice in on a small boat as you can and you’ll be a better sailor than if you practice basic skills on a larger boat.