Reefing Systems

[mbd]

Reefing on Lucky Dawg is complicated slightly by my main's attachment to the mast via (I am going to wow you now with my vast sailing venacular knowledge) "metal thingies"/cars attached to a mast track. ...I have a stopper at the bottom of the main track - which ends about 15 inches above the top of the boom. When I drop it, the cars stop there - otherwise, the whole main falls off the track when dropped. When I reef, I remove the stopper, ease the main, and then use my jiffy reefing lines to secure everything.

I have the same setup as Kyle and have been wondering what others do. It looks like CPete has the same on Grace as well.

So, is it a given that you need to free up the lower slides(?) ("thingies") from the mast track so your reefing clew can be secured down close to the boom?

[Lucky Dawg]

Just a thought... Given the length of the track the boom is attached to, I imagine that the boom downhaul could be eased and in reefing, the boom could be drawn up to fill that 15" space rather than the sail being hauled down. Don't know what that does to center of effort issues (note ephemeral Physics Sugar Plum Fairies in my head - those thoughts don't last long) After a season of sailing, I'm just thinking of that experiment now. That wouldn't work with a rigid vang system.

[mbd]

In re-reading Pete's description, that sounds like what he does...

...The boom also has to slide up on its mast track during reefing, which is why I put a block on the gooseneck.

[commanderpete]

Yeah I drop the slugs off. Otherwise the sail is too bunched up

[bill@ariel231]

Mike, et.al.

A-231's reefing system is similar to Commander Pete's "Grace", but set up for operation from the mast.. here's that earlier drawing edited to show Periwinkle's system:

In my case, a pair of cheek blocks are located at the end of the boom, the reefing line passes from them through the sail and back to the boom where it is tied with a bowline. Each successive pull on the reefing line is secured with a cam cleat while i'm taking it in. Once the new tack is down, the reefing hook is used to grab the cringle and the halyard is retensioned. finally the reefing line is secured on the cleat.

I like this system for several reasons, 1. I'm always at the mast for this operation on all of the boats i sail, 2. there aren't a lot of moving parts, 3. the reefing line also acts as the outhaul, 4. it's scalable to much larger boats (we've used this system on alyce's dad's cape dory 33 and something very similar on a friend's Frers 40).

[bill@ariel231]

here are some close-ups of the hardware on A-231:

[mbd]

Thanks Bill! A couple of questions:
1. It seems you have a "pair" of everything;cleats, cam-cleats, blocks... One set for each reef?
2. "Tied with a bowline" - tied around your boom? So it goes from the bowline on the boom, through the reef point in the sail, down to the block at the boom end, forward through a cam cleat, then secured to a cleat on the forward end of the boom?
3. From your Gallery pages on Post #111, you've got 2 sets of cam-cleats each side of your boom. I'm assuming they're reefing related. Do you use ALL of them? Left and right handed reeefing?
4. In pic no. 3 above - the green flecked one running through the cheek block is your reefing line - where do the others go?

[bill@ariel231]

Mike

1. Actually i use only one side for the two reefing lines.

2. exactly. the bowline is around the boom, the line runs up to the leach on the main, back down to the cheek blocks at the end of the boom, forward thru the cam cleats then to the 6" cleat.

3 & 4. Just one side is for the reefing lines (although it's rigged as a mirror image)... the green flecked line is the topping lift, the red flecked line is my outhaul (there is a block on the clew of the mainsail).

lots of things to pull on...

[mbd]

Thanks Bill!

the green flecked line is the topping lift, the red flecked line is my outhaul (there is a block on the clew of the mainsail).

So... why do you have a block on the boom for your topping lift? I just tie mine off through the spot where you topping lift block is attached.

Also, your outhaul seems backwards somehow? Where do you tie the outhaul off after cranking on it??

[bill@ariel231]

well... lets see, the topping lift is rigged for 3:1 tackle hence the schaefer block, there is a block with a becket on the topping lift above (just out of the frame).

my outhaul is shown in the artwork below (red line) it is secured at the end of the boom, passes thru a block tied to the clew on the main, back to the cheek block on the end of the boom then forward to the cam cleat and cleats (just like my reefing lines).

in the spring i should get a picture of this, it's clearer in person....

[mbd]

Actually, you've cleared it up quite nicely Bill! Thanks!

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Ahhhhh! Now I know what's been bugging me all afternoon!

...the bowline is around the boom, the line runs up to the leach on the main, back down to the cheek blocks at the end of the boom, forward thru the cam cleats then to the 6" cleat.

I can't do this - I don't have a loose footed main!

[bill@ariel231]

Mike

quote mbd, "I can't do this - I don't have a loose footed main!"

actually you can if you have slugs on the foot. my current main has slugs on about 16" center. It's worked fine for me for the last 7 yrs. the trick is to see where the bowline will want to land on the boom once the main is hoisted.

my new main will be loose footed so this will get easier...

It wouldn't work if you use a bolt rope on the foot....

[sailorcave]

My sail has a cringle for the reefing line to pass arounf the boom. I'll try to stick a jpeg in this....

[mbd]

Great pic! You don't have another of your setup at the mast, do you?

[sailorcave]

Okay Mike - this is the other end of the boom.
Our reefing system is pretty much the same as Bill's except that our topping lift runs thru a block at the masthead. (Works as an emergency halyard too as we discovered when our wire main halyard jumped the sheave and jammed up hard).
These pics show how one sailmaker addressed the issue of the slides bottoming out on the sailtrack when reefing. Note the bottom slide is not attached directly to the sail but to a line run through some cringles. I think the pics are self explanatory (?)