Roller Furler Setting on C-27 - Opinions Wanted

[Rob]

I recently purchased a CDI FF6 roller furling system on my '79 Catalina 27 TR. I love it! I found myself out in medium winds yesterday, and reefed it down from 150 to about 100, maybe a little less. Have a brand new sail on it with the foam luff, so shape suprisingly pretty good.The boat handled like a dream in about 20 kts with gusts up to 25, but I still had the main full up. I was considering reefing, but was headed for the harbor, so I just drove her home - exhilarating!What do you do when the wind picks up on your boat? Do you reef only the jib, or do you take down the main too? I used to reef the main religiously, but now that I can make the jib disappear so quickly, I am more likely to strike it (or drop it to 100/90 percent)and leave the main flying when the wind gets unruly.Anyway - your comments are appreciated!Best Regards, Rob

 

[harvey]

Roller furl

Generally you want to keep the rig balanced, so you might want to reef the main and then the jib. If you don't reef the main, you could also let the main luff somewhat and sail on the jib and a only a portion of the main. Altenatively you can salo on the Jenny only.If you have jiffy reefing and can close the gate on the mainsail track, you can rig reefing the main from the cockpit.