Randy:

Reef early!! Practice in light airs. I mark the mainsheet where it will be at the cleat with each reef so I don't have to guess how much to lower the main. I use a tiller tamer. It doesn't take long so going forward shouldn't be too bad if the main is luffing. I'm also using a smaller and heavier jib when I sail in winds over 10 knots. The problem I have with the heave-to method is the chop/waves pounding against the hull tend to make it no better than just staying close hauled. In my opinion, the key is to stay as calm as possible. Reefing in 20 knot winds can be a challange. I once tried reefing in heavy winds with the motor running and it only made it worse. I kept going around in circles. The more I sail the less I rely on the motor.

Rich Cottrell

Really M15

Randy Graves <RandyG@cite.nic.edu> wrote:

Thanks everyone for the great information! I did search the achieves at www.msog.org and found some great threads. A couple of threads pointed to an article on reefing from Pineapple Sales http://www.sailmaker.com/articles/reefing.htm . The article was good reading, as was the achieves, and your replies. Thank You!

There seems to be 2 schools of thought regarding on what point of sail to reef a small boat. Some prefer to reef on a close reach, other prefer to reef while hove-to. In our M-15 (#407) all our lines are lead aft but, as I sail alone, I still must let go of the tiller in order to reef. I am concerned about letting go of the tiller on a close reach in high winds. Certainly she would fall off-wind or round up? Any thoughts or comments?

The heave-to method would allow me to secure the tiller in a hard-over position and then have both hands free to work the lines. I want to give this method a try next time but will first practice and attempt to perfect heaving-to!

It looks like I made 2 mistakes yesterday while heaving-to. 1- The back winded Jib was not fully flat, I should have sheeted it in tighter. And 2- it sounds like I should have sheeted in the main just a bit. I will give these a try on Monday. From the pictures in the books I was expecting the bow to be apx. into the wind, with a side-to-side wiggle. Yesterday I hove-to on a port tack and the bow settled apx. 30 degrees off-wind to port and no-wiggle. I also seemed to be making more forward headway than I expected, apx. 1.7 - 1.9 knots of forward movement in apx. 15 - 20 knots of wind. Any other thoughts or ideas?

Thanks again,
Randy Graves
M-15 #407

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