In my experience, Bill nailed the problem and solution. A polished crew will make the evolution look a whole lot cleaner and faster but much like raising the main with no reef, the boom has to be allowed to rise up to match the line drawn between the tack and the clew and at the Sam angle to which the sail was cut. Stop thinking of it as pulling the reef point down but rather pulling the boom up. As a new sailor I regularly fought to get a full hoist on an unreefed sail because I wasn't allowing the boom to lift. In my case it was often the vang which may have started loose on the previous boom operation but was now bar tight. In my ignorance I would ease the mainsheet even to the point of flogging the sail and still not be able to get a full hoist. This error is seen by looking at the leach edge and looking for it being tight as compared to the luff edge. In the case of setting a reef the leach edge below the reef will naturally be loose but looking above the reef point the leach is TIGHT and the luff may still be loose too.
Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD Jun 18, 2022 19:46:51 Bill Coleman via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com>: > I have always found that tough to do as well, the initial tightening of the > reefine. > > And sometimes, I still forget this, but once I just let the main sheet free, > I let the boom go where it wants, I can just tighten up. The boom always ends > up higher than you're used to, so I think there's a tendency to have it down > too low and try and tighten the main clew where it cannot go. I don't tie it > around the boom, though I have a padeye on the top of the boom where the > reeefine dead ends. My boat sails & looks better with the number one reef > oddly enough. And it is blowing cats off of roofs here as well. Sitting at > the dock with the boat laying at 10° > > Bill Coleman > Entrada Erie PA > > On Sat, Jun 18, 2022, 18:55 David Knecht via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: >> We raced today in a real blow and I was reminded to ask how others rig their >> reefing lines. I have a single reef point in my main and outhaul and >> reefing line both exit the pulleys on the end of the boom. When I want to >> reef, I have generally run the reefing line up to the cringe, down and >> around the boom and tied it to the boom. I have found it to be really >> difficult to pull the new clew down and back to flatten the sail in both >> directions. It seems like it should work, but I am not sure if there is a >> better way. How do others rig for reefing? Dave >> >> S/V Aries >> 1990 C&C 34+ >> New London, CT >> >> [cid:4073BE72-4704-4EA7-8EBA-B73B833F502B] >>
