Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Reefing Gear Change


Any time your boat is heeling more than 20 degrees (certainly more than 25 degrees) you are not sailing as efficiently as your could.  And, the chances are that the sails are too large for the wind that you are sailing in.
To balance things and gain better control there are a couple things you could do.  One is to reduce the size of your headsail.  If you have roller furling, this will be fairly easy.  If your headsails are hank-on, the job will require taking down the present headsail and then hanking on a new jib and hoisting it.   All the while, the boat is heeling way over and the person steering is having a dickens of a time.  
BTW -  I have changed down my genny to a jib while single-handing Snickerdoodle; and was pretty well exhausted by the time I made it back to the cockpit.
For me (and I suspect on most boats) it is easier to tuck a reef in the mainsail; especially if all the reefing gear is already installed are ready to go.

When I first got Snickerdoodle, she was rigged with "jiffy reefing" gear and all of the halyards, reefing lines, et al were led to the mast at about the height of the boom.   
 The first time I had to reef, I went forward on the cabin top to the mast.  Just as I was about to begin tucking in the reef, the person steering lost control of Snickerdoodle and we began to do snap spins uncontrollably.  That event (after dousing both main and jib, and then motoring back to the marina) was what convinced me to lead all of the halyards, sail control lines, reefing lines, etc. back to the cockpit.
The first setup that I rigged was for a single first reef using a single line system.  It worked OK and I subsequently added a single line for the second reef.
I have used this system for several years and like it fairly well.  The problem is that the single line tends to pull the luff edge of the sail down to the boom first... leaving the leach portion with quite a bit of friction to overcome.  
So, this spring I have re-rigged the reefing system to a double-line setup on both first and second reefs.  Yes, that did mean that there are two more reefing lines to keep track of.  But, I have color-coded the lines (red - first reef; blue - second reef).  Now the luff edge comes down smoothly as before - and the leach line does as well.

 The picture above shows only the first reef.  But, trust me, there are two reefs rigged aboard Snickerdoodle.  Now I can easily tuck in a reef in less than a minute - - and never have to leave the cockpit.
 

 

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