Reef Clewlines

[ebb]

Would someone please comment on the verbatim quote to follow with regards to our (Ariel) boom. It comes from:

http://www.briontoss.com/education/a.../miscmay04.htm

"3. Reef Clewlines
Most production sailboats have the reef clewline sheaves in the end of the boom. This arrangement is great for manufacturers, as it means they can turn out booms much more quickly than if they installed separate cheek blocks on the boom for the clewlines. But it makes for lousy sail shape. and can even harm the sail, because too much effort goes into hauling the sail aft, and too little into holding it down. To make matters worse, the arrangement allows the reef clew to 'float' up, resulting in line chafe, and to prevent this you have to lash the clew to the boom with a separate line. Sheesh!

So put your deadends directly under where the clew will be at full extension, and put cheekblocks about 6" aft of this, for a much better vector of forces. Lead the lines back to the boom via halyard entrance plates, fixed to holes cut in the boom. We do this "reef upgrade" on a lot of boats, and people are always very glad of the difference it makes."

Would like to hear a general comment, but also if you can explain the sentence beginning, "Lead the lines....." would be internally grateful!

[Tony G]

How about if it says lead the line back into the boom...Internal lines is the answere my friend.

Oh-and uh what do we do when they part? Just kiddin'. It aint gonna happen unless we never inspect. I mean, everyone does routine checks and maintenance. Right?

[ebb]

Hiya Tony,
This Brian Toss suggestion seems very traditional. Once had oak reefing combs on a solid spruce spar that was laid out with little wheelies in the combs under each (and aft a little) of the reefing clews just like this. One side was a deadend - reefing pendant went up to the clew - down to the opposite side sheave - and tied off. The pull was mostly down and a little bit aft. Had a larger sheave built into the spar end for the main corner clew. The pull was 100% aft. Can't remember, but there must have been a tiedown helper like your 'strop' to keep the clew from rising. It was however a loose foot main on a gaff rig with looser tolerances. All the reefing work had to be done on an active boom in the cockpit.

The pull down pendants were all rigged at the boom end -
not diving into a hollow aluminum spar to what?
to exit near the mast and return to the cockpit?
If you had three reefs, that's a lot of extra line. And a lot of turns. And a lot of ecetera wheelies to avoid a lot of extra chafe. And a halyard winch on the cabin (probably on both sides) would have to be used.



Are you going to have exterior cheek blocks as he suggests? Those sheaves in your new Dwyer, are they all for the main clew in-boom tackle? Looks like that new fitting has to be removable to allow maintenance and line replacement(?)
What are other skippers doing?

[Tony G]

Ebb,

This crazy Dwyer set-up I'm trying has three sheaves in each fitting. The outhaul proper is the metal, center sheave on the 'distal' fitting. It is large enough to handle 3/16" stranded cable. The 'proximal' fitting has a larger sheave for the outhaul that is capable of handling 1/4"-5/16" line.

On either side of the center sheave are two sheaves that handle line vs. cable. These must be the highly benifical reefing clewline sheaves. I'm not gonna use them. I don't believe the placement is best for the job. Sorry, just my opinion. Up front they even include a built in clam cleat, which means you have to go to mast to 'shake it out'. I don't want to do that.

Like you said, that's alot of lines inside a small space. Maybe if the boom had a circumference of 20 plus inches I'd sneak every line inside. All I'm hoping to achieve with this project is get the outhaul line inside the boom, down the mast and back to the cockpit.

Tony G