Reefing my my sail?

[Stevyboy]

Howdy there,

I have a question about reefing my main sail on my 1973 Cal 27. I have two sets of reef points but each set is only equipted with two holes for the reef. The holes are at each end of the main sail. Everyone I've talked to out my sail's say I can't correctly reef them like this, but my question is why would they make it like this then? or well my real question is how do i reef these?

If it helps I'm going to take some pictures today and then post them so everyone can know what I'm talking about, and maybe help with me how the line is suppose to be threaded through the holes.

Steves

[JohnRPollard]

Steves,

You should be fine with that arrangement. The only thing your sail might be lacking is the series of smaller grommets along the reef point (between the tack and clew cringles) that is used to bundle up and contain the unused portion of the sail. Many smaller boats dispense with these, and your boat is on the cusp of where they become useful.

Take a look at this thread, it has some useful links with diagrams.

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-m...ng-system.html

[sailingdog]

If the holes in the sail are actually reefing cringles.. and have the reinforced patches around them to take the strain of reefing the sail, there isn't any reason you can 't reefing using the two cringles. Slab reefing or jiffy reefing would do the trick quite nicely. The reefing points aren't really needed if you have lazyjacks and aren't going to be sailing reefed for an extended period of time.

[nolatom]

Obviously, the forward hole ("cringle" if you want to sound salty) attaches to the gooseneck area, either to a hook or some other type of tie-in.

For each of the aft cringles on the leech, you need a tie-in point at the end of your boom, and a turning block (cheek block) on the other side. Tie the end of the jiffy (or "slab") reefing line to the boom fitting, then lead it up through the cringle, then back down to the turning block, then forward along the boom to some kind of cleat on the forward part of the boom.

You luff the main, ease the halyard, fasten the forward cringle first, then pull back up hard on the halyard. Then pull hard as you can on the aft cringle reefing line so the new "foot" of your main is tight, then you're done. Trim the mainsheet back in and pat yourself on the back--you're an accomplished "reefer" and you haven't even smoked anything illegal..