Reefing setup

[PaulinVictoria]

I had a chat with the PO of my boat (24ft C&C in case you can't read my signature), anyway, the reefing system he had on there seems a bit, well, plop. There is a hook at the tack and a shackle connecting the clew to the outhaul.
To be able to reef it, I'd had to take out a couple of stoppers, drop the lower part of the sail out of the mast track and hook the reefing point onto the tack hook, and disconnect the shackle at the clew and reconnect it to the reefing points.
Basically, there is no way that it could be reefed aside from at the marina before the sail is hoisted and to me that doesn't seem right. In fact I'd go as far as to say there isn't actually a reefing system in place and as I found out on Sunday, when it gusts up a bit, it can get a bit hairy (was on a nice close reach and all of a sudden over at 45 degrees, headed up, nothing happened it tacked and knocked us 45 degrees the other way which scared the cr*p out of my wife, and me!).
I've read up on a few reefing systems but I wondered if anyone who had a C&C24 had any photos of how theirs is set up? There doesn't appear to be any hardware on the boom to handle it so would have to spend some $ I suspect.

[Kiltmadoc]

I have a c&c 32 with what sounds like the same setup. I will let you know if my setup "adjustments" work after this weekend. We meant to test it out this past weekend, but we were having too much fin with the full mainsail and a 150 genoa.

[Faster]

Here's a simple drawing of a typical arrangement..


No way should you be needing to disconnect the clew shackle to put in a reef.. it'd be virtually impossible to do in a real breeze. Your other issue is the need to drop some sail slugs out in order to get the tack down onto the hook. This is usually not a problem for the first reef, but often is for a 2nd or 3rd as the slugs stack up in the track and the luff can't drop far enough to reach the tack hook(s) Your sailmaker could possibly add jacklines to the luff to facilitate this.

[sailingfool]

You should work out a permanently run reefing line so you can conventiently put in a reef, or two.

meanwhile if you learn to hove to, it is quite easy to lower the main and workup a reefing line, such as switching the outhaul to temp duty, set the ree tack, then raise the sail and get back underway.

[sailortjk1]

Faster's diagram shows everything you need.
add a small pad eye, turning block and cleat to the boom and you are done.
Sounds like you already have the hook in place.

[sailingdog]

I'd point out that connecting the outhaul to the reefing cringle won't generally work as well as having a dedicated reefing line that comes up from the boom and then back down and aft to a block, since the outhaul has very little "down" component to apply to the reef's clew, and the clew will tend to lift from the boom more than it would with a dedicated reefing line.

Install proper reefing lines and make your life simpler.

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

I'd point out that connecting the outhaul to the reefing cringle won't generally work as well as having a dedicated reefing line that comes up from the boom and then back down and aft to a block, since the outhaul has very little "down" component to apply to the reef's clew, and the clew will tend to lift from the boom more than it would with a dedicated reefing line.

Install proper reefing lines and make your life simpler.

SD,
I agree that that using the outhaul as a reefing line wont provide a good reef if the outhaul only hauls out, as in its normal operation. In this situation, the outhaul should be eased to provide sufficient length to pass through the reef clew, around the boom and then terminate to itself, just like a reefing line. If it isn't long enough, then a piece of line would need to be added to provide the necessary length.

[sailingdog]

SF—

From the OP's post:

To be able to reef it, I'd had to take out a couple of stoppers, drop the lower part of the sail out of the mast track and hook the reefing point onto the tack hook, and disconnect the shackle at the clew and reconnect it to the reefing point

Don't see how the shackle would allow him to anything but connect to the reefing cringle directly...

Originally Posted by sailingfool

SD,
I agree that that using the outhaul as a reefing line wont provide a good reef if the outhaul only hauls out, as in its normal operation. In this situation, the outhaul should be eased to provide sufficient length to pass through the reef clew, around the boom and then terminate to itself, just like a reefing line. If it isn't long enough, then a piece of line would need to be added to provide the necessary length.

[glymroff]

On my daughter's triton (recently purchased), there are two reef points. With a setup exactly like the drawing above w/ one exception. There does not seem to be an eye or anything on the opposite side of the boom to secure the end of the reef line. What is on the other side is the opposite setup for the second reef line. I'm confused as to where to secure the end of the reef lines. The second question is what size and type of line should be used for the reef lines.

Thanks in advance!

[tweitz]

The new issue of Sail magazine has a rather detailed article on slab reefing systems, including single line, two line simple and two line complex. It does a good job of showing the pros and cons of each and how to set them up and has pretty clear diagrams. It is worth a read for anyone interested in the subject.