I just bought an older hunter 27, the other day was the first time I tried to reef the mainsail but when I tried to bring down the sail I couldn't pull the reefing point down far enough because of the sail track. All the slides pile up and I can't pull it down far enough. Could someone tell me what I am doing wrong here
reefing? problem
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I think I can picture what you are describing. I'm guessing you have a reef line the leads up one side of the sail, through the tack cringle and down the other to a cleat or other method to make it fast. What you are describing is that pulling the reef line down to adjust the sail the tack cringle only comes down as far as the sail track stop which is some distance above the boom. If so, I've seen such arrangements on production boats and have a similar problem myself. It seems the builder intends that you tack the sail a foot above the boom when reefing. I've never seen anyone recommend such a practice, and seriously doubt you could get any decent sail shape that way but its the way my boat is set up and I've seen pictures of other boats like mine reefed that way.
I'm working with my sail maker to change the situation, but haven't been able to get down to the boat when he was available. I am thinking a "dogbone" through the cringle with a small block attached will allow the reefing line to run both up and down on one side of sail, which will allow me to pull the tack past the slug stop, all the way to the boom. I just need to have my sailmaker look at it and make sure that solution won't overstress anything.
HTH. Good luck.
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Your mainsail should have a three foot piece of rope attached along the lower part of the luff, which is external to the sail's luffrope. The track slides on this part of the sail are on the external rope, not the luffrope. When you lower the sail, the external rope hangs lose allowing the material containing the reef tack to hang down as far as the reef hook, permitting the hook to be properly attached. The sail should have been cut with a external rope tail like such.
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Quick and easy solution is to tie a loop of line through your reefing point. This loop will hang down far enough and can be put through your reefing hook. Basically it's a poor man's dogbone and quick to rig up. I put them on my mainsail while underway in order to make reefing quicker and easier.
A fisherman's bend is a good know for this and 7-8mm cord would probably be a good choice. You'll have to experiment with the length a little.
Medsailor
A fisherman's bend is a good know for this and 7-8mm cord would probably be a good choice. You'll have to experiment with the length a little.
Medsailor
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You have to bring the reefing tack to the boom or the whole foot of the reefed main will be fat and twisted. Both the reefing clew and tack need to pulled to the boom, or you will have a mess. The foot of the reef needs to pulled both down and out.
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This is IIRC a jack line. Any sailmaker should be able to add one to your sail. Or you can go up to the mast, remove the sail track stop, lower the sail to your reef points, removing the offending slides as you go, and then put the sail stop back in. This kind of takes the "jiffy" out of "jiffy reefing."
The best solution IMHO is to get rid of the sail track stop completely. You can fabricate a piece of aluminum to partially close off the gate (wide spot that you feed the slugs in.) The idea is to make the slot in this portion of the mast the same width as in the rest of the mast and keep the slugs from falling out when the sail is lowered. This allows the slugs to drop all the way down to the boom and simplifies reefing. (You attach this aluminum plate with a couple of screws after the slugs are inserted into the mast; you remove it at the end of the season when you take the sail off.)
hunter 27's have the sail entry slot too high, when you put in the lock the bottom 2 slugs wont go down far enough. there are 2 options one take out the stop and let out 2 slugs. the other option is to make a gate that screws over the opening and lets the slides go by. there is some one with a pic of their boat who did this here, but not a hunter
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