reefing

[K.C. Walker]

Well... I guess mine is set up with a reef hook not a claw. My bad.

KC

[seandwyer]

KC, I think I'm going with the hook as well. I'd been concerned that the claw was a bad idea for the sail material and Greenlake pretty much concurs. I totally understand the hook end of things and it makes me feel better, so now I just need to figure out the aft end of the boom.

Just went over to check the boat this afternoon. A rope securing the tarp apparently came undone over the last couple of weeks and the deck was full of snow, but luckily the cockpit was still covered. I had memories of this time last year when I initially began thinking about buying the boat. I hadn't even asked if it was for sail, but saw it over in the storage yard. I undid the tarp and found the biggest ice cube I'd ever seen laying in the bottom of the boat and I vowed that if I ever did wind up owning it that I would never let such things happen - then today I find her exposed and covered in snow. I'm a baaaaad boy.

[K.C. Walker]

I'm a baaaaad boy.

Yeah, you are soooo bad! I meant to make some PVC bows for my tarp which keeps loading down with snow, but I didn't. Next year for sure!

Yeah, the hook is easy. So is the outhaul for the reef. You rig it just like your standard outhaul only with a longer line and to a cheek block that is, actually, not that far from the end of the boom, like maybe 3 inches.

KC

[MrPlywood]

"Gee - how economical!" At least the shipping is free

re: protecting your boat - at least yours isn't in danger of floating away, on the trailer... The water finally subsided and mine is moved and safe, none the worse for wear

[GreenLake]

Glad to hear that. A few years ago, mine escaped being flattened by a tree during a winter storm, only because I had not moved it to its usual winter storage place.

[K.C. Walker]

Hey Plywood, I must admit your boat did look pretty forlorn and neglected out there in the middle of the field of water.

KC

[djd]

I've read about another way to make a point on the boom to hang the sheet block from after rolling up the sail. Maybe called a "reefing cloth"? Very simple, but kind of hard to describe.

Start with a metal ring, say 3" in diameter. Take a piece of strong cloth - like canvas - about 12" wide x 24" long and pass it thru the ring. Stop with 12" of fabric on each side of the ring. Fold the cloth in half. You end up with a doubled up 12" x 12" cloth with the fold bunched up inside the ring. (See I told you it was hard to describe!)

When you roll up the sail, roll the cloth up with it. Leave the ring end hanging out so you have a place on the boom to attach the turning block for the sheet.

I haven't tried this yet, but sounds like it should work. It's cheap and easy. Might take some experimenting to get the cloth length right so it wraps up fully and securely in the sail while leaving the ring hanging out. Perhaps match the length of the cloth to the amount of reef? Drop the halyard 18" and use an 18" cloth?
Dennis

[Peterw11]

"Yeah, you are soooo bad! I meant to make some PVC bows for my tarp which keeps loading down with snow, but I didn't. Next year for sure"

I was going to do the PVC bows as well, to allow the snow to slide off the tarp. Like you, I never got around to it before the snow came. I've got my cockpit covered with my old boom tent style cover, only laid flat across as the boom and mast are in the garage.

I then covered the entire boat with a large vinyl tarp, bungied to the trailer. To relieve the snow load, I simply laid 4 or 5 6" wide boards across the cockpit, under the tarp. I removed the coamings so I can refinish them over the winter and the boards just lie flat from one gunwale to the other, but it'd still work fine with the coamings in place.

[GreenLake]

I've read about another way to make a point on the boom to hang the sheet block from after rolling up the sail. Maybe called a "reefing cloth"? Very simple, but kind of hard to describe.

Two pieces of fabric, even under only light pressure, do indeed generate an interesting amount of friction. If you don't have center-boom sheeting, the force the cloth needs to hold is about 1 1/2 times the load you are holding when you are pulling on the sheet (not 1 times, because of the 90 degree bend at the block).

I could easily imagine that you can get that much out of a rolled up cloth. Also, the friction goes up quickly with the number of turns or partial turns. Interesting idea. Cheap to try for all that have the roll-reef gooseneck, but not the reefclaw.

[navahoIII]

Whoa! Nice, but at that price?! Think I'll check out the "used" market.

[John McGrath]

A good diagram for single-line reefing can be found at the Harken website. On my DS, I made it a two-line system. One for the clew (line from eyelet, through cringle, through cheek block, forward to jamcleat on bottom of boom), and another for the tack. I undo the cunningham, run it through the new tack cringle, around the mast, through the new tack again, then down to the cunningham jamcleat. First, I let both sheets go. Then lower the halyard until the new tack is at the right height. Do the cunningham thing. Do the clew thing. Snug up the halyard (tight = good). Back to the tiller, in on the sheets, underway again.

[kokko]

I am no fan of the roller reefing of the main. It is not at all difficult to rig the boat for "jiffy reefing". There are lots of diagrams out on the web