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PGuignabaudet
United Kingdom
97 Posts |
 Posted - 27 Jun 2004 : 22:13:08
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Hi all,
Has anybody got any advice on reefing?
I got out this afternoon with my 8 year old crew and F5 and I reefed the main so that we could handle the boat. The boat felt safe, which was reassuring, but felt a bit akward at the helm.
To reef the main I tied in the reefing lines at both ends of the boom and tied the cunningham to the luff reefing eye. However I left the outhaul at the clew. Should I have tied the outhaul to the leech reefing eye to give the sail more tension?
Secondly when sailing with a reefed mainsail is it better to partly furl the jib to restore the boat balance?
Thirdly I initially applied a high tension to the rig to cope with the strong wind, but then the jib wouldn't unfurl because it was catching the forestay. I noticed that when the rig tension is high the loop at the top of the jib sticks with the jib halyard and rotates with it, hence tangling the forestay. Is there any other solution to this problem than easing the rig tension while furling and unfurling (which is a bit akward in strong wind and choppy water)?
Regards,
Pascal
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Pete
49 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2004 : 08:21:21
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THe solution to the forestay question is to untie it and tie it to the base of the mast. I sailed witht he forestay left on for the first time yestaerday and wwe got tangled when furling/unfurling. If you leave the forestay on then I think re-tensioning it would stop it twisting.
I'm not sure where is the best place to tie the forestay to the mast. Currently I'm tying it to where the kicking strap connects to at the mast bas (I'm sure there's a technical name for this!). You still need to pull a fair bit of tension on it to prevent it from twisting when furling. Reading on here it seems dome folk have removed the wire loop that clips to the forestay. I've left mine on... I assume it's there to prevent the jib halyard from twisting when furling/unfurling. |
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SophieJezierski
United Kingdom
48 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jun 2004 : 14:52:31
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| tying the forestay off on the mast also helps gybe the gennaker without tangles so we always sail with it off. However, check your jib halyard regularly if you do this since it's all that's keeping the mast up! Also be careful when you retrieve the forestay from the mast base - we've managed to partially split the sleeve around the mast by getting the forestay caught on it as we tried to pull it free. |
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PGuignabaudet
United Kingdom
97 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jun 2004 : 09:41:14
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To reef the main I tied in the reefing lines at both ends of the boom and tied the cunningham to the luff reefing eye. However I left the outhaul at the clew. Should I have tied the outhaul to the leech reefing eye to give the sail more tension?
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MarkWest
35 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2004 : 01:01:24
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| The idea of the reefing system is that you should only need to ease the main halyard and reef the luff end of the sail 1 or 2 holes down. Then, after re-cleating the main halyard, you should simply haul down on the leach reef line to re-level the boom. That's It! To start changing the location points of the other lines such as the clew outhaul causes problems when you come to shake out the reef. It's meant to be a really quick reef system. I would suggest that you just apply maximum outhaul tension (on the blue line) to keep the bottom of the sail tight on the boom top. Sheeting harder on the main should give reasonable balance against the jib. A little more leeward heel will also turn the boat up to windward against the jib pressure forcing the head off. The headsail is fitted with a "Roller Furling" system which is often mis-named a "roller reefing" system. It isn't. Roller reefing is generally built using a substantial luff tube running outside a static stay the rig tension is on the stay NOT the reefing gear allowing the sail to be partially rolled or fully stowed. Stratos has roller furling which is only reliable when used to fully stow the sail. It should be noted that high rig tensions as used in high wind sailing will damage the gear unless most of the rig tension is dumped before rolling the sail away. We have found the Roller Luff and Forestay combination to be very badly thought out on Stratos. Our wire loop "fell off" very soon after we got the boat. The only thing it did was twist the forestay round the furling gear! RWO & Holt who make these systems provide 2 alternatives as standard on the same furling fitting. For some reason Laser decided to use the one guaranteed to cause problems with this lay out. We have since added the "other" stay/Halyard detangler to our fitting. This is a simple S/S ring which sits on top of the fitting and keeps the gennaker halyard (keep it taught)away from it during furling and hauling operations. We also tie back our stay after setting up our jib. We saw a neat use of the elastic at the nats last weekend. One of the owners had added a plastic clip hook to his bungee and simply hooked the stay down to the kicker mast loop! Very neat. Cheers Mark (Stratocaster 635) |
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PGuignabaudet
United Kingdom
97 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jun 2004 : 20:52:37
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Thanks Mark, that's quite a comprehensive answer. However I don't really understand how your new furling fitting fits and works. Can you email me a picture when you get a chance?
Thanks,
Pascal
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Reefing
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