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Greetings all, The mainsail that came with 7038 has a single set of reefing points in the sail, but no hardware to perform the reefing. I have some boom sliders and would like to fit the temporary blocks at the clew end of the boom along with cleats and turning blocks at the front. I am wondering what block sizes I should buy for front and rear, what size reefing lines I should use and what cleats would ye all recommend for securing the lines when reefing. After I get this done and a buoyancy bag sewed into the head (of the sail…. My head is full of air and should float well, I’ve been told), We will be ready for launch. Thanks in advance for any replies. Regards, Dave Doran.
Maybe this helps.
I use 5mm dyneema for the reefing lines. 4mm would probably be OK too and slightly lower friction.
I didn’t have a rams-horn at the gooseneck so I made one by sawing a bit off a stainless D-shackle, and fixing this to the boom by means of a bolt which also goes through the tack cringle, replacing the split pin normally used for this purpose.
The reefing lines run from boom sliders to entry sheaves on the upper face of the boom, then along inside the boom and exit on the underside at the inboard end; I have a single cam cleat fixed to the boom underside, and three small pulleys forward of that, to take each reefing line and the outhaul. You can then pull the required line through the cam cleat, depending on how much sail you want to have up.
The thing I like most about my system is that you can reef effectively whether or not the sail is run up and boom on the gooseneck. You need to be able to reef underway, for safety, but in practise I usually set in my reefs before I go out, and it’s easier to do this with the boom down inside the boat.Well I have a simple slab reefing system that goes like this: One line is involved, it is tied off at the reefing clew cringle. It passes the normal clew cringle, then the normal tack cringle, then the reefing tack cringle, and is kept in place with a big figure of 8 knot. When you reef, you lower the sail to the proper position, grab the figure of 8 knot, and pull. It helps for the other person to hold the boom up and you should end up with a reefed main. All that’s left is to cleat up the reefing line to a cleat on the mast, and tie up the sail ties. I also have a sail tie on the reefing clew cringle to tie the sail down to the boom and hold it’s weight, which I tie up once the main reefing is done. I must say a picture would tell a thousand words on this one!
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