Anyone familiar with the reefing system/procedure on an O'Day 19? The mainsail has a grommet eye at both the tack and clew a short ways up. The tack grommet can be set on the "hook" at the boom mount, and obviously a line can be drawn through the grommet at the clew - but how is the length of sail along the boom secured, as this sail does not have the short reefing lines I have used on smaller boats.
Reefing mainsail O'Day 19
- Thread starter RTSKI
- Start date
This is an example of "Slab Reefing" or "Jiffy Reefing."
There should be a single line stopped through an eyestrap on the aft end of the boom (I use an overhand knot at the end, feed the line through the eyestrap.) It runs up the port side of the sail, into the leech reef grommet, back down to a cheek block on the starboard side of the boom, then led forward to a horn cleat roughly 2' aft of the gooseneck on the boom.
Reefing procedure: Hove-to on a starboard tack. This gives you access to the starboard side of the boom and mast, and also you're on the high side, and theoretical right of way on starboard tack. Snug topping lift if there is one, to prevent boom dropping into cockpit. Let off main halyard, lowering main sail, until you can slip the luff reef grommet over the hook on the top of the gooseneck. Hoist main such that boom is at a good height. (The 19 ought to have a sliding gooseneck, which might have dropped a bit.) You can also pre-mark your halyard to help with this. Now, turn aft to uncleat the leech reefing line, and pull it quite snug. You'll note that the line pulls both down and aftwards, such that the foot of the main become quite tight. (Winds are high enough to reef, you want the foot tight, just as you tighten the outhaul to flatten the lower 40% of the sail to depower.) At this point, there will be a billow of loose sail at the foot, which you could either sail as is, or if it gets in your way, you could tie "nettles," lines hanging from the middle of the sail, around the boom. If you look at a properly set up reef line along the sail, the luff and leech grommets will be higher than the 2 or 3 grommets for the nettles. Note also that the luff and leech grommets are heavily reinforced with layers of sailcloth, while the nettle grommets have maybe 1 small diamond shaped layer of reinforcement. All the load of a reefed sail is at the tack and clew, NOT along the middle of the sail at the nettles. The nettles' sole purpose is to gather the excess sail. There should be no upward force on the nettles, or they can easily tear out. In fact, if one were to have a loose footed sail (a bolt rope foot is standard on the original 19 sail), one does not need to tie the nettles around the boom at all.
Hope this helps!
There should be a single line stopped through an eyestrap on the aft end of the boom (I use an overhand knot at the end, feed the line through the eyestrap.) It runs up the port side of the sail, into the leech reef grommet, back down to a cheek block on the starboard side of the boom, then led forward to a horn cleat roughly 2' aft of the gooseneck on the boom.
Reefing procedure: Hove-to on a starboard tack. This gives you access to the starboard side of the boom and mast, and also you're on the high side, and theoretical right of way on starboard tack. Snug topping lift if there is one, to prevent boom dropping into cockpit. Let off main halyard, lowering main sail, until you can slip the luff reef grommet over the hook on the top of the gooseneck. Hoist main such that boom is at a good height. (The 19 ought to have a sliding gooseneck, which might have dropped a bit.) You can also pre-mark your halyard to help with this. Now, turn aft to uncleat the leech reefing line, and pull it quite snug. You'll note that the line pulls both down and aftwards, such that the foot of the main become quite tight. (Winds are high enough to reef, you want the foot tight, just as you tighten the outhaul to flatten the lower 40% of the sail to depower.) At this point, there will be a billow of loose sail at the foot, which you could either sail as is, or if it gets in your way, you could tie "nettles," lines hanging from the middle of the sail, around the boom. If you look at a properly set up reef line along the sail, the luff and leech grommets will be higher than the 2 or 3 grommets for the nettles. Note also that the luff and leech grommets are heavily reinforced with layers of sailcloth, while the nettle grommets have maybe 1 small diamond shaped layer of reinforcement. All the load of a reefed sail is at the tack and clew, NOT along the middle of the sail at the nettles. The nettles' sole purpose is to gather the excess sail. There should be no upward force on the nettles, or they can easily tear out. In fact, if one were to have a loose footed sail (a bolt rope foot is standard on the original 19 sail), one does not need to tie the nettles around the boom at all.
Hope this helps!