Tuesday
May 6, 2014
Another one of
those blustery spring days in Santa Cruz.
With anticipation, I watched how windy it was all day long and this
evening would not disappoint! I had a
request from another boat earlier in the day for extra crew, so I took one of
my crew members with me and went to his boat.
His boat was nearly ready to go as we arrived. I was impressed to see that the sails were
already reefed and the reefing ties were already cinching the sail around the
boom at the pre-determined first reefing point.
We started the motor and headed on out of the harbor. Many of the boats were already out as we
hoisted our sail. Most boats were
already reefed in preparation for the predicted wind.
With the wind
blowing from the North, I called for course 14: Start, Gov, Blacks, finish. With the wild wind, even though ample time
was given for the start, boats were all over the place. Few boats were right on time at the line and
the boat I was on was just as far from the start as any others. Sailing Pair a Dice romped ahead of the rest,
and from my perspective, it looked as though they never gave up the lead. They finished ahead of Emeritus (2nd
place) and Pacific Spirit in third.
We met at Crows
nest afterwards for a brisk but chilly discussion outside on the deck.
REEFING SYSTEMS:
What are the
elements of a good reefing system? It should be quick, simple and easy to do!
As the wind pipes up, these are not easily accomplished unless you have an
appropriate reefing system in place.
Every boat has its proper sail set up as the wind pipes up. Do you reef the main or furl in the headsail
first? This is all determined through
experimentation. On Pair a Dice, we find
we can sail with a properly balanced boat up to 27 knots of wind with a full
135 Jib and one reef in the main.
One common misconception with novice sailors
is that you lose speed when you reef.
The opposite is true: Nothing is less efficient than a sailboat sliding
sideways through the water. By standing
the boat up more, you move forward more and point a lot better.
Most of the boats
use a jiffy reefing system. This system uses a line tied around the boom, going
up through the port side of the leech cringle, down to a block on the boom,
then along the boom to a block on the starboard side of the boom at the gooseneck,
up through the luff cringle, down to a block on the deck and preferably back to
the cockpit to a cabin to winch. You can use a hook in the end of a line that
can be used as both a Cunningham and to help keep the luff of the sail taught
when reefing. This is the system I have
on my boat and it takes less than a minute to put the first reef in with any
wind up to 30 knots. For this to work
flawlessly, it is critical to not deal with a topping lift. This is taken care of by installing a solid,
spring loaded boom vang. From my
experience, it is not usually necessary to use ties to cinch the sails to the
boom. If ties are used, they should be
tied only AFTER the sail is hoisted and the reef is in. The purpose of the ties is to tidy up the
sail mass. If tied before the sail is
hoisted, undue pressure is put on the tie cringles and the sail can be easily
ripped.
The most
interesting time I ever had reefing was
crossing the Santa Barbara Channel in 40 knot winds and 12-15 foot following
seas. We were making good progress with
a single reef in, but were going so fast surfing the waves, that as the boat
rounded down in the trough of the waves, water was flooding over the corner of
the cockpit. Though the mainsail had
cringles for a second reef, we had never put the second reef in. I climbed on
the cabin top and with one end of a line tied around the boom, attempted and
finally succeeded in threading the line through the second reef leech cringle,
with sail flogging wildly in the wind.
We tied it down as well as possible and used the Cunningham hook for the
luff. Later an experienced sailor told
me that you should always have a light line looping through the first and second
reef cringle with a loop tied in this line. No need to deal with a flogging sail, put your
reefing line through the loop in the line and pull it up and through the
cringle. No fuss no muss.
We’ll see what next
week has in store for us.
See you next
Tuesday.
Barry
Sailing Pair A
Dice
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