About reefing

[DanaDCole]

At what wind velocities should I reef the sails?

My thinking as of now is:
Up to 12 kt - no reef
12 to 20 kt - first reef
20 to 25 kt - second reef
Above 25 kt - go home (This is an over-simplification--I would think you would douse the mainsail and use the jib to sail back to port maybe.)
I have the first number set a little low (I think), because you need to get the reefs in early.

Are these settings too high? too low? Any advice is appreciated.

Do you leave all the cars on the track when reefing (I have stops for that purpose) or just let them dangle?

[riverron]

Dana,
First, I am by no means a sailing expert and will defer to the experts. I started to sail this past year (non pocket ship) and furled / reefed my sail every time to start. I would then depending on weather and conditions let out the sail, but only if I was comfortable. I may be too cautious, but I like to play it safe until I gain more experience. Once I start / finish my Pocket ship I will probably start off the same way, slow.

I remember John Harris stated in one of his videos that he would reef at about 12-13 kts or as an option furl the jib sail if that helps. He is a very experienced sailer. Stay safe!

Ron

[Bflat]

The old adage says, "the time to reef is when you first begin to wonder if you should."

[DanaDCole]

I want to be sure I am reefing correctly. Today I went for a short sail with winds of about 15 kt, gusting to 20 kt. I wondered if I should reef, so I reefed. I tied the cringle and all the reef points for the second reef. I had quite a bit of extra sail material near the clew and it was luffing and flapping about. Am I doing something wrong or is that just the way it has to be with gaff-rigged sails?

Looking at a picture of PocketShip #1 on the CLC website, it looks to me like the sail should come down uniformly as long as the yard is kept to the proper angle. I made sure the throat and peak halyards were tight, but still had a bunch of extra sail at the clew. Looking at that same picture, I can see that the first reef is in and there are four ties. There are also four ties for the second reef. My sail only has three ties for the second reef, which is why I couldn't contain that extra sail. Do I need to contact the sail maker?

[slick95]

Just checked my sails (still in the box as I have not completed my boat) and only have three ties at both reef points. Now I wonder if this is correct?
Jeff

[craig]

The sailmaker apparently changed the pattern sometime in the last year. I've noticed the newer boats have three sail ties now.

I am extremely conservative when reefing because I find that my boat is way overpowered even in light winds. I'm not sure if it's because of my home-made sails (I may have cut them too "full"), or not enough ballast, or just because of the gusty wind conditions on the lake. I'm generally reefing if the wind is 7 knots or above, and a second reef if above 12 knots or so. I realize that's very much against what other people have experienced, but I'm telling you my boat doesn't need more sail area than that. I also like to furl the jib as a first reef point, although that certainly gives you a lot more weather helm and you can't point as well or go as fast. The one thing that didn't work well for me was using the jib with one reef point when I should have used two. To keep the boat on its feet, I kept spilling the air from the mainsail, which caused it to have excessive lee helm. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but with experience I realize that I should have either furled the jib or further reefed the main. If it had been fully reefed, I wouldn't have had to spill as much air, and the center of effort would have stayed farther back where it belonged. Now I don't have any problems with lee helm. (The other trick is to not fully trim the jib when tacking. Build up speed, then trim jib to where it should be).

Dana: after tying up the reef points, you can also shove the extra sail material between the outhaul line and the boom to keep it from flapping. That's what I did.

[Bflat]

I wonder if simply adding a reef tie line to the reef clew grommet (it would share the same hole as the reefing outhaul) would help tame the sail. It could stay hanging there like the other ties when not in use and wouldn't take a trip to a sailmaker to do. One caveat is that I suppose it could get tangled in the reef outhaul.

On a side note, the current issue of Woodenboat magazine has a pretty good article on reefing. I found it interesting that they recommend not wrapping the reef point ties around the boom, but instead around the sail only, especially on a loose footed sail. It's supposed to stress the sail less at the reef tie points. So far I haven't seen it done that way on Pocketship and maybe there's a good reason for that - I don't know.

[DanaDCole]

I appreciate the comments and I will definitely take a look at that article. I also agree that there is a lot of sail, but I was really glad the other day when I was dealing with 2 to 6 knot winds and still managed 2 or 3 knots in the boat from time to time. The boat handled quite well though with full sail in about 8 - 10 knot winds with two people aboard. There was one "incident" where I was stepping on the mainsheet after a tack and the boat heeled over quite a bit before I could get it released. The heel wasn't that bad but scared the bejesus out of one of the passengers. It's nice to have all that purchase on the sheet, but that also means there's a lot of extra when you sheet in and it's important to keep your feet out of the way.

I was not aware of a reef clew cringle or a reef outhaul grommet. That may be what I was doing wrong, i.e., I need to tie the reef clew cringle and/or outhaul the reef. Might solve the problem.

If the above doesn't work I'll try the tucking method.

I can definitely see where it would be a much better idea to reef to the sail foot and not the boom, especially since sail is loose-footed. Less stress on the sail and it will probably belly out more properly.

If I can get the reefing set up where the leech doesn't flap about I will reef much more often--15 knot winds yesterday (gusting to 20) with two reefs in was still a bit scary for a neophyte like me. I just got through putting the boat away (maybe for the season) and putting a tarp over it. But at some point I plan to unbend the sails and put them in the bag. At that time I will double-check to make sure I am correct about four ties at reef 1 and three ties at reef 2, but as of now I am about 99% sure. And I'll look for the reef clew grommets. I will probably be doing that within the next two or three days.