How do I rig the reefing lines?

[tomgrigsby]

My main has three reef cringles(?) at the leach and at the luff. The boom has two lines that run internal from the mast to the end. There are cam cleats for the lines at the boom end of the mast. There is a hook at the boom end of the mast that I assume is for the luff cringle. How should these lines be rigged? Do I tie one line to the lower leach cringle and the other to the middle leach cringle (and leave the highest one if I need to plan for the end of the world)? If so, what sort of knot? This is a new main sail. Don't know how many cringles the original had, hence the disparity between the quantity of lines vs cringles?
Got caught out in a thunderstorm a few weeks ago more or less single handed with every square inch of sail I could carry up, and had to ride it out. I had an epiphany about reefing.

 

[Nelsonhow]

Tom,

I have a H-30 too. I recently moved up from an H-27 but both have the same reefing system as you describe. You've learned the first rule of sailing. Reef early. I don't know what knot to use at the back of the sail (I'm not much on terminology) but my son says that if you can't tie a knot tie a lot.

Anyway the reefing lines go from the back of the sail around the sheeve at the back of the boom, through the boom and out the front of the boom over the cam cleat on the side of the boom. There are 2 lines one for the first and one for the second reef. I have a row of eyes across the sail at each reef point. I have short pieces of line fed through each eye on the sail with a knot at each end to keep them from falling out.

When you reef you drop the sail by releasing the main halyard a little. On some boats you may have to take the one or two of the lowest slides out of the track. I had to do this on my H-27 but not on the H-30. You put the hook at the front of the boom through the front eye at the reef point you are using and then snug up the reef line to t he back of the sail from the front of the boom. Then you tie off the short lines along the boom. This keeps things neat and prevents the reefed portion of the boom from ballooning out in the wind. Don't make the ties too tight because it will rip the sail. Then you snug up the main sail halyard.

Practice this BEFORE you NEED to do it for real. It's not the time to learn when all of a sudden it's blowing stink...... The third reef point is unusual and probably for when all hell breaks loose. To use it you'll have to improvise but I would suggest that if it's necessary you should not be out there. Kidding aside you'd have to figure how to reef it in a similar manner.

Hope this helps........

 

[Paul F]

Nelson has given very good advice. My rig is similar to yours. I have added two items that for me make reefing quicker. First, a S-binder is used to attach the luff cringle to the jiffy reef hook. This is much easier and quicker than trying to fit the sail cringle over the jiffy reefing hook. Second only one line with a hook at the end is used to control the leech. This line is one of the existing lines fed through the boom. It is hooked to the leech cringle and simply cleated off at the mast end of the boom. [FONT=&quot]a separate line is tied through the cringle and around the boom pulling the cringle tight to the boom. This line is much like the other reefing mid-sail lines. But in this case the line is drawn tight to the boom not loose, as the midlines should be. Also when moving to the next reef higher up the sail this leech cringle line is left tied to the boom. I carry a number of aprox. ¼" lines tied to the cabin top rail for this and other “need to tie quickly” purposes.[/FONT] If another reef is needed the hook is taken and moved higher up the sail. I find this simplifed system much easier to use without all the tangled lines. It has the benefit of no lines when the reefs are not used as the leach line hook is attached to the boom when not in use. With our boat's relatively short boom this one line system works well. It likely would not work as well with longer booms.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Paul, I like the simplicity of your reefing. But I am wondering if you are able to really get the main tight to the boom. With the hook you are pulling the sail down AND back are you not? Normally the reefing lines go from the sheaves up through the cringle and back down and tied perpendicular to the boom. In other words the sail is pulled down more than back.

 

[Nelsonhow]

Paul,

What"s an S-Binder?

 

[BenDi]

Paul,

What"s an S-Binder?

Here's a picture of one type of s-binder.

 

[Paul F]

Ed thanks for your question. One of the reasons I like pulling back on the leech cringle is that the sail is pulled taut by the line. Ed points out an important factor in keeping the sail also tied down to the boom. To do this, a separate line is tied through the cringle and around the boom pulling the cringle tight to the boom. This line is much like the other reefing mid-sail lines. But in this case the line is drawn tight to the boom not loose, as the mid-lines should be. Also when moving to the next reef higher up the sail this leech cringle line is left tied to the boom. I carry a number of aprox. ¼" lines tied to the cabin top rail for this and other “need to tie quickly” purposes. (the first post has been edited to include this information)

 

[tomgrigsby]

Nelson
Thanks so much for the details of how the boat is set up. It makes perfect sense and I appreciate the help.
Paul
Your modifications sound intriguing and sounds like it will work better than the stock setup. I was wondering about how well things would work with the reefing lines continously rigged. After my storm event (and epiphany) I'm sure it is better to be rigged and ready, but I can imagine them giving me grief when raising the sail. I think I'll go with your adaptations including the 1/4" lines. I'll have to find a couple of those S-binder hootigators. Thanks again all. Everyone's comments were very helpful.

 

[Paul F]

Only one S-binder is needed. Put it on the lowest luff cringle and move it to the reef point you use. You can leave a reef in the sail as you wish. It actually makes it easier the next time out if there is a string of strong windy days.

 

[David in Sandusky]

This info is in various places in previous answers, but here is how the lines are run on our '77 h27:

One end is tied as tightly as possible with a bowline to the boom under the cringle it will serve.
It runs up, through the cringle, then down to the aft end of the boom to the pulley on the other side.
Then it continues through the boom, and out the fitting at the mast end where it is gripped by a 2 jawed jam cleat. We coil the line after the cleat.

We sailed 6 hours with the first reef in yesterday in 20 to 25 knots of wind. It was pure joy, and the main held an excellent shape.

I hold the end of the reefing line, and step on the loop below the jam cleat to tighten it. While getting the cringle down to the boom is important, the tension to the aft end of the boom is also important to flatten the reefed sail. In fact, the whole purpose of the boom, the traveler, the mainsheet, and the vang is to position the (new, reefed) clew in the right point in 3D space. If it ends up a couple of inches above the boom, the vang and the mainsheet can still get the clew of the mainsail down to the right level.

This setup allows you to handle 2 reef points with this jiffy reefing method. If you think you may use the third (highest) reef point I would rig the second and third points with your jiffy reefing lines, since the first reef point will go in at the lowest wind speed/stress.

By the way, we put the reef in yesterday at anchor, and sailed off the hook with it. We usually heave to to put a reef in underway. Heaving to relaxes the boat and us, and the whole exercise takes about five minutes. Your h27 will heave to quite nicely.

Enjoy learning to reef, and use it often - one of the principle joys of sailing is learning how to shape your sails and vessel to the conditions at hand. By the way, if the wind calls for reefing (heeling often past 20 degrees on our boats) your boat will sail faster with the reef in.

Fair wind and following seas!

 

[jcherubini]

Setting up slab-reefing system

In the back of the Schaefer Marine catalogue is a series of diagrams for doing this, and I chose and now wholeheartedly recommend the single-line reefing system as they describe. This is on my boat and has been included on the new generation of Cherubini 44s. Basically the reef line is fixed at the tail end of the boom, goes up through the after cringle, down into the boom the other side, forward through the boom, up to and through the forward cringle, down to the deck, and aft to the hatch/cockpit. On a C-44 there are two, one each side (and thus four boom sheaves, not three, each end). As we fit it, it enables you to stand in the hatchway with the halyard(s) on one side and the reef line(s) on the other-- so as to use two winches if needed. You play one out and one in pretty much at the same time. THEN you go forward to tie up the 'billowing bag' underneath.

It's never fun in a bone-chattering squall to bend a recalcitrant sail round the cunningham hook-- in fact I took them right off my boat. The forward end of the sail is held down by the forward reef line. I also can pull the pin out of the gooseneck and, instead of raising the sail with the halyard after settling on the the reef, I can LOWER the boom against the halyard, thus reducing heel angle, motion, and so on at the same time.

The biggest detriment with this system, as it is on my boat, is that the outhaul for the reefed sail, still going back to the end of the boom, now leads on a pretty bad angle, sometimes necessitating an extra tie through the aft reef cringle and cinched round the boom to hold the sail down. Allowing a reefed mainsail to pull other than at its own bias line has led to sail failure more than once-- however it's usually after days or weeks of sailing through the south 50s, never getting a chance to shake out the reef and factoring excessive chafe and brilliant sun into the bargain. For most of us this is a very minor threat.... then again it happens on the Delaware River too, so vigilance is still key anywhere.

On that note-- the rule of thumb is generally that if you think it's time to reef, it was actually time to reef 10 minutes ago, so do it now. I always advise people to go out on a very tolerable but windy day and practice this. I said once, you should be able to slab-reef the main, with the least number of crew you might ever have (alone?), in under 60 seconds. If not, go practice till you can. Then a guy at the club said, '45 seconds.' His boat is smaller than mine... but that doesn't matter because, properly set-up, you could reef any size of boat the same way. So, 45 seconds then.