Where is the Dave Scobie write up? All the methods described will work but in general you are making this too complicated. 1. good seamanship requires that you know how to heave to reliably, boat on starboard tack about5 to 10 degs off the wind and let the boat slow down to a crawl, jib backwinded on starboard side of the boat, boom 3 to 5 feet off of the port quarter and cleated, tiller tied off as far to leward as possible. The boat should now be quite and stable and you can begin reefing. 2. the topping lift does not have to play a role at all as if it was adjusted correctly while sailing the boom can only lower about a foot and if you follow my process it will not lower at all and will not need to be adjusted. For me in my M15 "Seas the Day" step 1 is to Heave too, step 2 is to release the boom vang. Step 3 is to pull in the clew reef point until it is quite tight. This will pull the boom up and immediately reduce the sail area exposed by about 1/2 the reef area. It will raise the boom and pull the boom towards the center of the boat so you may want to let out a little mainsheet to maintain the heave to course stability. Then follow the methods for the tack as described. Practice makes perfect :-) Thanks Doug Kelch On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 9:13 AM brad kurlancheek <bkurlancheek@gmail.com> wrote:
Ernst, Ditto on welcome to the group. Dave Scobie, as he mentioned, put together an excellent description of reefing. I took the liberty of summarizing Dave's description, for my own use. Any errors are exclusively mine! - Brad
REEFING an M15
SETUP
1.
Steer the boat so the wind is blowing about 10 degrees off the starboard bow. 2.
Loose the main sheet, lock the tiller so the boat stays pointed into the wind and go forward. 3.
Sit on the starboard cabin top, as a sailboat’s reefing gear should be on the starboard side of the mast and boom, with legs hanging inside the companionway.
METHOD ONE
First, secure the topping lift, as you're about to lower the main sail and don't want the boom falling down.
a. Lower the main using the halyard so the reef tack grommet is about four inches above the gooseneck.
b. Retie the main halyard to the cleat.
c. Reach aft long the boom and pull the clew reefing line so the clew grommet is secured tight to the boom.
d. On the mast pull the reef tack line and pull the tack grommet tight to the gooseneck & secure.
DONE.
*METHOD TWO* (again, be sure topping lift is secured first)
4. Lower the MainSail, retie Halyard
5. Tighten Fore Tack Grommet to Boom by pulling Tack Grommet Reefing Line
6. Pull Main Halyard to Raise Sail to Full Length
7. Tighten Aft clew Grommet by pulling clew Reefing Line
DONE.
Now go aft, grab the tiller, pull in the sails and continue sailing.