SkipperJer,

I have been posting this technical stuff, because I see this site as one wonderful database on which current and future owners of Ariels and Commanders may rely to keep these great little boats sailing for years to come. It's the best thing like it that I have seen on the web.

Now, as to roller reefing, I can't imagine using that feature either. Sounds like a horribly sloppy thing to do to your mainsail. I merely have broken arrowhead on my gooseneck, but the gooseneck casting and spring are fine. I needed to replace the arrowhead and the badly worn toggle. If Rig Rite made a less expensive non-roller reef option, I might have considered it, but I tend to err on the side of keeping my boat more-or less stock. Since the roller reefing feature does not seem to get in the way or interfere with my jiffy reefing option, and since a fixed arrowhead would be equally vulnerable to accidental damage in a jibe or mast accident, I see no reason to disable that feature. I see no reason to disable a feature that I don’t use unless that feature creates some problem. So far, I cannot think of any problem created by the spring-loaded arrowhead. Actually if you have a spare arrowhead onboard, the readily removable part would seem to be an advantage should that part of your gooseneck fail at sea.

I am set up with two sets of reef points and jiffy reefing: Nothing fancy. I can do the whole thing single handed, but I need to get to the mast and the rest of the jiffy reefing process, I do sitting on the top of the cabin or from the cockpit. I have not run my reefing lines back to the cockpit, nor do I have a winch for those lines, and that wil be an improvement if and when I buy some cabin top winches.

I have been told by some other Ariel sailors that I reef much later than I should because I find it quite normal to sail around in 25 knots of wind at 40 degrees of heel withe ful main up. I suppose that I sail around that way because it is a pain to go forward alone to reef, and because for some reason my boat will sail at a high degree of heel with or without a reef or two, although two reefs do calm things down, or are those two reeves? I can approximate hull speed while doing so. On log passages a reef is in order, but for short forays into deep wind, I sometimes go forth fully rigged.

A couple of cabin-top winches would probably reform me.