On my mainsail, when I put a reef, 2 or three reefs in, the end of the boom raises quite a bit off the level of the deck. With no reefs the boom is parallel to the deck. With 2 reefs the main boom seems like it's trying to point at the north star.
I've heard that the boom is supposed to rise with reefing because it helps keep the boom from snapping off if it gets caught in a wave in a rolly sea while going downwind. Of course it is more likely to be a rolly sea in higher winds (thus the reef) but rolly sea states can exist with little wind and thus you'd have the main unreefed.
It also seems to me that having to let out a bunch of mainsheet (to allow for boom rise) makes reefing more difficult. If you let out the pre-determined amount of mainsheet before hauling in the reefing
line, you'll have an out of control boom. If you do it the other way, you have to go back and forth between adjusting the reefing
line and mainsheet.
Is the boom supposed to rise with reefing and if so by how much? How do y'all deal with the need for extra mainsheet while reefing?
MedSailor