Trouble with reefing system

[Dr. D]

The previous owner replaced the main and he had a single line slab reefing system installed. This is causing problems. (The Dutchman system he added works great.)

First, one of the cheek blocks sewn into the sail is missing the plastic sheave, only the inner metal ring is left. Where could I get a replacement sheave?

Next, when raising and lowering the main the reefing lines tend to get fouled and both interfere with raising the main as well as lowering it. Is there a method to raising/lowering with this single line slab reefing system?

[Cheechako]

Never liked single line reefing. Didn't work well on small or larger boat. Too much friction reefing or shaking the reef. Separate line for tack and clew for me. Or no line on the tack.

[Benz]

There is no good way to do this. all those extra lines will always turn to spaghetti, even with careful management, which kind of takes away all the supposed convenience. The best way to reef is to put the boom in the gallows so it can't move around, pull down the leech by hand and lash the cringles: Tack first, then clew, then do up the reef points.
I have reefed this way on every boat I've owned, and it's a system that never fails.
Ben
zartmancruising dot com

[model 10]

Originally Posted by Benz

T The best way to reef is to put the boom in the gallows so it can't move around,
Ben

Well I could not live without one on our boat, but there sure are a lot of boats without them.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by Guy

Well I could not live without one on our boat, but there sure are a lot of boats without them.

It's a common design flaw that leads to a whole bunch of other flaws.

[Joel E Felt]

Yup Benz, that how I came to do it also. It was mostly trial and error, and I try to remember to "reef" early.
Thanks for helpin.


joel

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Benz

It's a common design flaw that leads to a whole bunch of other flaws.

Now there's a nice bit of unsupported opinion! Would you care to elaborate on just why it is a flaw, and what the resulting additional flaws might be, please?


Jim

[model 10]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Now there's a nice bit of unsupported opinion! Would you care to elaborate on just why it is a flaw, and what the resulting additional flaws might be, please?Jim

I have no idea what Benz was getting at but I truly could not live without a gallows. I suppose the top of the bimini would work or more skill maybe but I don't see any other diff in rigging etc.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Guy

I have no idea what Benz was getting at but I truly could not live without a gallows. I suppose the top of the bimini would work or more skill maybe but I don't see any other diff in rigging etc.

Really "couldn't live without a gallows"?

OK, if you say so, but while a gallows is one way of supporting a boom whilst reefing (the subject under discussion), there are other means of doing this. The commonest one is to use a topping lift, and nowadays, some form of rigid vang will support the boom when the sail isn't doing so That's what we use on our current boat, and the topper was fine on her predecessor.

A gallows fits in on traditional designs quite well, but not so well on modern rigs. They are often heavy, and t he weight is up pretty high, so not desirable in my eyes. At any rate, if the gallows fits your boat and style of sailing, that's fine for you. I was really objecting to the "design flaw" line of argument presented by Benz... pretty one sided thought process IMO!

Jim

[UNCIVILIZED]

If one utterly must stand at the end of the boom to tie in a reef, then a gallows makes sense. Though I prefer to use 2 line reefing, & to not stand precariously on the cockpit seats, sparring with a large flailing metal (or wooden) club, when it's blowing F8 in order to reduce sail. Beefy (thick) spectra reefing pendants make me happy

[Benz]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Now there's a nice bit of unsupported opinion! Would you care to elaborate on just why it is a flaw, and what the resulting additional flaws might be, please?


Jim

Hi Jim,

Absence of a gallows is a flaw in that without gallows, securing the boom from flogging is more difficult. Without the boom solidly immobilized, tying in a reef becomes far harder, which is why people began putting all that spaghetti at the boom end, leading it through the boom, then eventually via many twists and turns back to the cockpit.
To me the whole reef line setup people use is unbelievably complicated and issue-prone, and completely unnecessary if the simple expedient of a boom gallows is used.
A gallows need not be heavy--it can be lighter than the giant radar arch so many gallows-less boats are sporting these days.
So, to spell it out simply: lack of gallows (design flaw #1) leads to design flaw #2: a super-complicated, unreliable, heavy, expensive system to reef without having to leave the shelter of the bimini, which is in it's own way, a whole mass of design flaws itself.

Regards,
Ben
zartmancruising dot com

[savoir]

Topping lift not good enough ?

[estarzinger]

part of this is a function of boat size - some good procedures for smallish boats dont work as well for bigger boats.

I will comment that 2 line reefing (my personal preference in all this) gives you the option to reef while running, which is pretty hard with the gallows approach.

[model 10]

[QUOTE=UNCIVILIZED;2398428]If one utterly must stand at the end of the boom to tie in a reef, then a gallows makes sense.

I thought everybody tied in a reef. How you can safely do it with a bimini and no gallows is beyond me. I don't care about the reef cringles much but tying in the clew seems to be safety first.

[siamese]

My Catalina 28 came with single line reefing, and it was a pain in the butt. It did not, however, have any blocks sewn into the sail to reduce friction, just cringles. I thought about adding some blocks in cringles to reduce friction, but opted instead to change to two line reefing.

Much better / love it. I don't dread reefing at all, anymore.

On my boat, all I had to do was add a couple cheek blocks to the side of the boom, ditching the in-boom system that it had previously. And, I was very lucky that there was already an extra spin-lock line snubber right next to the snubber for the single line system.

Oh, I imagine there are plenty of single line system users out there living happy and productive lives, but this is what worked wonders for me.