How attach reefing lines

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

You should refer to post #15 of this older thread

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/learni...youve-got.html

as to how to secure the bitter ends of your reefing lines. Read the post carefully as the answer is not obvious. You don't need any fancy knots or hitches, and the sliding eyes on the bottom of the boom are not attachment points.

My main is loose footed (now that I recall), but the lazy jacks cover is not loose footed. She has no other attachment points on the boom, except for the sliding eyes on the bottom. What to you suggest?

[Bene505]

Note the main is loose footed, but the lazy jacks cover is not. (I revised the earlier post.)

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by Bene505

My main is loose footed (now that I recall), but the lazy jacks cover is not loose footed. She has no other attachment points on the boom, except for the sliding eyes on the bottom. What to you suggest?

The cover should have reefing line grommets/slits sewn into its foot area, just as a main with a boltrope foot will, to permit the reefing line to pass through the foot material so the reefing line can be secured to itself after passing around the boom.

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by sailboy21

Fine... I'll draw a picture. Words haven't been coming out of my head right lately... getting old sucks. BTW this is not how my boat is currently setup, but a setup I have observed on other peoples boats that seems to work.



I changed the color of the reefing line from green to yellow as it passes through the reef point.

The bitter end of the reefing line should be secured around the boom itself, as in the referenced post. If you secure the bitter end of the reefing line as shown, the reef will not be pulled both aft and down to the boom, it will be pulled only aft, resulting in a fuller sail than designed, not what you want when you are reefing.

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

The cover should have reefing line grommets/slits sewn into its foot area, just as a main with a boltrope foot will, to permit the reefing line to pass through the foot material so the reefing line can be secured to itself after passing around the boom.

Sailingfool -- You are right!! I remember seeing those slits in the cover.

The light of dawn breaks, understanding it clear now. I'll put a bowline around the boom, through the slits in the boltropes sail cover (and under the loose-footed main), and then feed the line through the kringle. From there the line goes to the clew end of the boom and into/through the boom. At the goose neck end of the boom (the mast end), the line is held in place by cam style dogs.

Taa Daaa !!!!

Lingering question: This will mean the line from the kringle to the boom will be vertical, so all the out haul force will be from that part of the line going from the kringle to the clew end of the boom. Is this sufficient?


Can't wait to try this setup. How long until spring? Where is the spring launch countdown clock. Oh the agony of waiting!

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by Bene505

... I'll put a bowline around the boom... At the goose neck end of the boom (the mast end), the line is held in place by cam style dogs.

...

If you read the original post that I reference above, you will see that the bitter end of the reefing is not tied to the boom, but to itself...the cam style dogs are reduntant, of use only if you can't employ line stoppers near the winch. You do not want to have to set/unset the cams, you should have and use line stoppers at the winch.

To reef with a typical setup,
1. Set the reefing line on its winch and trim out any slack
2 fully luff the main, lower the main to a premarked position on the halyard
3. hook the reef tack onto on the reef hook.
4. fully tension the halyard
5. trim the reefing line via the winch until the reef clew reaches the boom.

Trim the mainsheet.

You can leave the reefing line on the winch, until you need to do a deeper reef, to do so, set the stopper on the working reefing line and remove that line from the winch, put the next reefing line on the winch and repeat the above process.

[JohnRPollard]

... If you secure the bitter end of the reefing line as shown, the reef will not be pulled both aft and down to the boom, it will be pulled only aft, resulting in a fuller sail than designed, not what you want when you are reefing.

I'm going to quibble here. I would say rather that the problem with the illustration is that the reefing line is going to pull down far more than it's going to pull aft. In other words, the attachment point for the bitter end is well situated relative to the reef cringle, but the bight of line coming from the padeye needs to be much farther aft in order to get sufficient outhaul tension.

So the illustration should be altered by shifting the padeye block well aft, and depicting the bitter end of the reefing line tied to or around the boom further forward of the padeye but slightly aft of the reef cringle.

Originally Posted by sailboy21

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by sailingfool

... 3. hook the reef tack onto on the reef hook.

I don't have reef hooks.

[tweitz]

Just joined this thread. Bene, my Beneteau setup on a smaller boat is similar. We also have aloose footed main with a stack pack, and it also has the slits in the stack pack, and I also do the bowline around the boom for the aft end. It is single line reefing. On the forward end of the boom the line comes out of the boom and goes up to a block fixed to the sail with a heavy duty attachment point as part of the sail equipment. The line then rund back down to a turning block at the base of the mast and then out to the sheet stopper and winch on the coach roof. There is a separate line and block for each of the first reef and the second reef. This generally works quite well and is easy to put in or shake out. The only problem I have is that every spring I forget the exact order of the lines, and the first time I reef one reefing line crosses the other and fouls me up. Some day I will remember to take pictures to guide myself.

[sailboy21]

nitpicking the angular relationships in my 2 minute paint picture? Wow...