when and how to reef

[Wayne Steinhour]

I finally got my boat in the water for the first time this year. We got out in some conditions that were a little rough for my experience level, so I thought I should ask this forum a question or two about reefing. We were trying to beat into a breeze blowing at about 14 - 22 knots out on Lake Huron. The boat was mostly heeling at about 15 - 25 degrees, which is a little high for my comfort zone, so we put one reef in the main. We were still heeling plenty, with one gust almost dipping the rail in the water when I was a little too slow to point up. I was a little frustrated to be only going about 3.5 - 4.5 knots, and every time we hit a big wave or two, we immediately dropped 1/2 knot or so in speed. I was hesitant to reduce sail more because I wanted to maintain a reasonable speed, but between the heeling and the waves, the ride was a bit more unsettling than we would like. The next day, the wind was a little lighter (with smaller waves), so we decided to go out for a leisurely sail with a double-reefed main and no jib. We were still able to go upwind at about 3 - 4 knots, with a much more relaxed atmosphere. That made me feel like I should have reduced sail more the previous day.

So my questions: What is a reasonable speed expectation for going upwind on a day like this? For reducing sail area, when do you drop the jib vs. taking a reef in the main? We were using a normal sized jib (not a genoa), and our main has two reefs. Do you normally take in both reefs before dropping the jib, or should the jib be taken down first? (I don't have roller furling.)

 

[Pat]

I think you are correct in stating you might have reduced sail more the previous day. On some boats reefing is complicated and some sailors sail overpowered which i've heard puts a portion of the hull into the water that was not designed to be in the water. (hence you become slower)..in other words, you are heeled over too far. I think it is possible to sail faster properly reefed. Plus, the boat is happier, you are happier, and your guests/family are more happy...Good luck, Patrick in Wichita

 

[Wayne Steinhour]

I should have mentioned in my original post that I was sailing a 23 (not my Javelin).

Wayne

 

[Stu Jackson]

Most books as well as discussions on this and other sailing forums include:

1. If you think you need to reef, do so
2. Learn how to do it at the dock, not when you first need to when you're out there
3. If it's hard to do, find an easier way
4. Double line reefing is better than single line reefing - most boats come factory supplied with double line reefing: a horn at he tack and a separate clew line; running them back to the cockpit is a good idea
5. In most cases, a first reef in the main is what's called for; too often with roller furling skippers reef the jib first - a lot depends on the boat
6. With masthead rigs, the jib's the driver; fractional rigs, it's the main
7. No reason not to sail with jib alone or main alone: practice what works best for your boat depending on conditions

 

[Brian S]

The answer is to reef to where you are comfortable. Reef early, reef deep - it's easier to shake out a reef when the wind dies than to put in a desperation reef when the going gets really rough. I have seen plenty of people on my lake sailing with reefed main, and I'm cruising along comfortably at 20º of heel with full sail. Whatever makes you happy! I'm not saying I don't get nervous on gusty days cleaning the toe rails, but still... There was one day the roles were reversed - I had reefed main, and this other guy comes out with a fully battened main and a 135% genoa. I had the 192, he had the larger (twice the ballast) 222, but I didn't realize that at first. He caught up to me (I thought "Wow, that 135% genny sure makes the 192 go fast! Time to upgrade...") and I hollered "You guys are nuts with full sail today!" and he and his buddy hollered back to me "I wish our boat was as controlled as yours!" I noted that he didn't even have his leech reef line installed, so couldn't reef if he wanted. (And I also noticed he had the 222, so I was no longer miffed that he caught me, considering he has a longer, faster, boat!)

I think you would be better to reef before dropping the jib. Generally, a boat will point better and be better balanced with both sails up. Sometimes it's even worth it to keep a scrap of jib if you have a roller reefing furler, just to balance things, even if the scrap has poor shape.

Most displacement boats like a particular angle of heel, maybe 15-20 degrees. Beyond that, the weather helm can get high, and even further than that and she might want to round up on her own. So, reefing to keep her on her lines is fine.

Another example: in my planing centerboard dinghy, I have found that I can go faster with a reef than if I were constantly overpowered and dumping the mainsheet. Most vivid example was making slow progress with full main and having to dump the main for each gust, yet still hiking aggressively. I finally gave up, hove-to, and put in the reef. I then spent the rest of the afternoon hiking moderately, keeping the main sheeted properly, but blasting around feeling under control, occasionally jumping up on plane. Woot! Properly trimmed, properly depowered boats go faster than constantly rounding up or dumping the main.

I would advise you practice heaving-to on a starboard tack, and putting in your reef, on a nice, calm day. That way, you have a well-practiced routine, for when you NEED to put in a reef. Generally, getting hove-to calms things down considerably, so you would be golden in a pinch.

Also, don't forget your sail controls. Depower first, then go to a reef, though the day you describe it sounds like you needed your reef.

Hope this helps,
Brian

 

[Brian S]

Good points from Stu! For a fractional rig, reef the main first before dousing the jib, because the main provides the power. But on a masthead rig, the jib does the work. That's why you hear masthead rig guys with many different sized jibs, doing lots of sail changes...

I have heard that there is more stress put on the rig sailing with just main or just jib alone, but I do not have evidence of this. At least, I haven't heard this from a marine architect or rigging specialist...

Brian

 

[RichH]

Reef when you feel the comfort need; ..... or more importantly, when the boat is developing more and more apparent 'weather helm' with increased heeling.

When reefing for beating into 'large' waves of high-steep 'chop', sometimes its better to immediately go into a deeper or second reef and with full draft (eased reefing outhaul) in that second reef.
When close hauled / 'beating' and reefed, a more full draft will develop the POWER to 'punch' through waves. A FLAT reef will only develop 'speed', little power, and damn little 'acceleration' when you 'nose in' and get stopped by a BIG wave. ... kinda like being stuck in 'high gear' when trying to go up a hill.
How much draft when deep reefed??? .... set the reef outhaul tension while watching the speedo for the highest attainable for the 'current' wind/wave conditions; you can always 'depower' down (flatten down or 'twist off', etc.) from there.

;-)

The question of increased rig tension, etc. when flying ONLY a jib or or main ... totally false.

 

[Wayne Steinhour]

Thanks for the input, everyone. We definitely need to practice our reefing technique. I just added the gear this spring to bring the lines back to the cockpit. That worked well for the forward reefing lines, but the aft lines still cleat on the sides of the boom. I thought that it would be an easier reach for my wife, but it was a stretch for her. It would have helped a lot if I had changed tacks so that the cleat she needed to use was on the closer side. I should have reduced sail area more, but I'm still not sure whether I should have done a second reef or dropped the jib. I guess I'll need to practice some more in different conditions to figure that out. Fortunately, the old O'Day 23 seems like a pretty forgiving boat to learn these lessons on.

 

[Indysailor]

I have a 130 % genoa on a furler that does not reef. We sail with that up to maybe 12-15 knots, then reef the main after that. We will go to just the main somewhere around 20 knots. The boat sails under control with just the main, but without a head sail it certainly loses a lot of drive.

 

[Jackdaw]

The question of increased rig tension, etc. when flying ONLY a jib or or main ... totally false.

Its true if we are talking about mast failure.

The Nordic Boat Standard (NBS) is on of the four major marine standards organizations (Lloyds, ABS, Veritas) and the only one that tests sailboat rigs. Because they are only concerned with mast/rig non-failure and not performance, they test the rig in the two-worse case column-loading scenarios.

1) headsail only
2) reefed main only

Marconi-rigged sailboat rig loading is designed for both sails up when the boat hits max loading, at its Angle of Maximum Stability (often 30 degrees is used). When the boat is subjected to this same load with a reduced sailplan, the loads are unevenly distributed along the mast (column). These worst-case scenarios are used for determine spar,spreader, and standing rigging sizes.

As Rich alludes, the max rigging tension always occurs at the Angle of Maximum Stability. Beyond this point, the boat just heel more, and wind spills over the tops of the sails.

 

[RichH]

Sorry Jack but thats wrong and due to the wording (translation ?) of the NBS.

Simply if the mast receives force, induced force, from ONE sail that is EQUAL to the force of BOTH sails (implies twice the windload etc. on a 'single' sail), the resultant mast loading is essentially the SAME. The primary failure of masts is through 'buckling failure' due to undue compression and errant transverse mast deflection (stiffness) under load which induces the buckling.

In all primary loadings to a mast the force coupling results in mast compression.
So, in the case of jib only, the compressional force of positioning (halyard tension) is 'missing'. In the case of main only, the component of additional induced compressive strain on the mast from the jib reacting with its stay - is also missing. Thus, in both cases, induces LESS compressive loading into the mast - therefore less inducement of buckling failure.
The 'wording' of NBS is at fault as with essentially one half of the sail plan missing, the induced loading to the mast will be essentially one half the loading in comparison to two sails inducing additional load into a mast.

A structural analysis via incremental static 'free body' diagrams on each and every connection to the mast and varying incremental mast section analysis will prove this.

BTW most mast rigging systems are back calculated (strength required) by theoretically pulling the mast from the top + fully loaded boat over to a theoretical induced heel of 45°, then the appropriate safety factors are applied to the 'wire', etc. to arrive at the proper 'scantlings' .... Factor of Safety @ 3 to 4 for 'offshore'; 2 for 'coastal', and 1.5 for 'inshore' are added to the minimum UTS when theoretically 'held' at the 45° theoretical angle of heel.

 

[Jackdaw]

Rich,

I'm not making this stuff up! ;^)

Image from the NBS. In the case of the headsail only, boom loading is missing. In the case of the reefed main only, the load is centered low on the column.

Jib and main are different beasts because the jib free flys, its mast loads are at the top only. The main spreads it along its luff, and the boom load.

To your comment about half load: When healed at its AMS (angle of max stability), the rig of any particular boat is under a fixed amount of load, as a function of its Righting Moment. Reducing the sailplan (if that angle of heel remains the same) does not decrease the load, it just assumes more breeze holding you there.

 

[RichH]

I repeat ... with jib and main each of equal sail area and each representing approx. 1/2 of the entire loading onto the mast .... the jib loading via a 'point' loading at the top of the mast .... and the main loading the mast via a triangular 'distributive' load to the mast AND the reactive compression load from the main on the mast .... both inducing compressive stress into the mast .... with ONE sail removed and not operating there will approx one half the stress onto and into the mast .... and one half stress on the rigging (due to reduced moment load because one half the combined sail area is absent).

The simple statement is: if one half the combined applied load is absent, there is NO change of mast nor rigging dimensions (maximum moment of force is defined by BOTH sails) then the mast and the rigging in comparison to when operating with TWO sails, is now operating at half applied stress. Simple 'statics'. One half applied stress is less than twice of one half stress (2 sails).
Reducing the induced load by half does NOT increase loading to the mast nor rigging !!!!!!!!!!

The sketch you presented is showing 'moment loads' = force times distance. In the case of the reefed main - the equivalent moment force applied FROM a centroid of area acting at a distance) is showing a vastly reduced moment in comparison to 'full up'.

"To your comment about half load: When healed at its AMS (angle of max stability), the rig of any particular boat is under a fixed amount of load, as a function of its Righting Moment. Reducing the sailplan (if that angle of heel remains the same) does not decrease the load, it just assumes more breeze holding you there."
Answer ..... and what happens to the combined 'force moment' when one half the applied load is removed ?????? that angle of heel is now substantially reduced !!!!!!!! If what you state were correct then removing one sail would result in the same amount of heel .... and that of course is false.

;-)

 

[jfschena]

Anyway, we went out yesterday. It seemed kinda gusty. There were white caps and the water was streaking. I'm guess 20-25 knots. We used the main with one reef. Boat speed was 1.8-2.0 knots into the waves and 3.8-4.5 knots with a quartering following sea. Comfortable heel. Lots of fun. We tried rolling out the jib just a little. All it seemed to do was increase the lee helm, increase the heel and the screaming--from the wife, not the rigging Maybe it was trimmed wrong. I'll post a video if I can figure out how to get it from my phone to my I pad. . . .thanks for the info. Oday 26 btw. . .

Joe

 

[Brian S]

Those speeds seem slow if the wind was indeed 20-25 knots. That's a lot of wind.

Brian

 

[jfschena]

I thought that was. We're novices. I was just glad we were well under control. Those conditions were on the sporty side for us. Probably not very efficient if we actually had to go somewhere. Next time well do some more experimenting (and learning)

 

[ruidh]

I'm quite happy sailing main only in my masthead O23. Do what feels right for your boat.