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.
On 7/1/21 9:12 AM, brad kurlancheek 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.
Note that "boat stays pointed into the wind" will seldom last for very long. In mild conditions, after you have the reefing moves down and don't much have to think about them, this will work, you can get the reef in while still stalled out, before the boat falls off again. In less than mild conditions, and when you are getting the reefing moves down and working out the kinks in your procedure, best to heave to, put the boat in a stable configuration so you have time to not rush. cheers, John -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
Another couple comments on details here... I'm not sure why one would ever tighten the clew before the tack when reefing ("METHOD ONE" says to do it this way). Multiple problems can arise. If you tighten the clew first you will be pulling the sail aft with slack in the luff and before the tack is secured and the luff re-tensioned. This puts tension aft-wards on the sail slugs or boltrope in the mast slot. This may make it harder to secure the tack than if you secure the tack reef point first. Also harder to re-tension the luff. Plus the sail trim may be wonky once you do re-raise the main, because normally the sail is raised and luff tensioned before we mess with outhaul tension. The standard reefing steps I've seen everywhere and all the old salts I know use & teach is same as *METHOD TWO*, which, from the article with a bit more details, is: 1) Ease the boom vang and then the mainsheet so both are slack. 2) Take up the topping lift so the boom is stabilized. 3) Lower the main halyard until the desired reefing tack cringle is in position. 4) Tighten and make fast the reefing tack line, or put the tack cringle onto the gooseneck hook, ring or shackle. 5) Hoist the main halyard until the luff is firm and wrinkle-free. 6) Take in the reefing clew line, or luff cringle [...] as much as possible, and make fast. 7) Ease the main topping lift. 8) Trim the mainsheet. 9) Tighten the boom vang. My most common mistake in the sequence is, I forget to ease the topping lift, until I've sailed off with the reef in and then notice something seems off about the boom position and/or sail trim. Also...
First, secure the topping lift, as you're about to lower the main sail and don't want the boom falling down.
Having a smart setup for your topping lift is part of safe quick easy reefing. To quote from the reefing 101 article I posted earlier: "Topping lifts and clew lines should never terminate at or near the end of the boom; these would potentially require the crew to hang dangerously over the lifelines to access them." Another hazard, even if you can safely reach the aft end of boom, is getting smacked or yanked around by the boom while trying to secure/release anything near its aft end. Much more force and movement at aft end! So as with clew reefing lines, have working end of topping lift within easy reach from front of cockpit and/or companionway. Two basic options: 1) Fixed end at masthead, to small block near aft end of boom, and then forward along boom to clamcleat in same fore-aft vicinity as clew reefing & outhaul cleats. This is how mine is set up - in one of the photos I posted you can see the small block near aft end of boom for topping lift line. It is on port side, as there is not reasonably room for another line on starboard side if there are two reefs plus outhaul. Less so on the smaller boom of an M15. It's easy to work topping lift by touch from starboard side by just reaching under the boom where the clew reefing & outhaul cleats are. Also less likely to be mistaken for a clew reefing line in 'urgent' (panic!) situations. 2) Fixed end at aft end of boom, thru block at/near masthead, and down mast to cleat near base, in vicinity of tack reefing cleats (on port side for same reasons as when on boom). I consider 1) better because no need for an additional block at masthead. If anything fouls or jams up there when you need that topping lift working....not good! cheers, John -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
Great job, John, Thanks. Sent from my iPad
On Jul 1, 2021, at 5:57 PM, John Schinnerer via montgomery_boats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Another couple comments on details here...
I'm not sure why one would ever tighten the clew before the tack when reefing ("METHOD ONE" says to do it this way). Multiple problems can arise.
If you tighten the clew first you will be pulling the sail aft with slack in the luff and before the tack is secured and the luff re-tensioned. This puts tension aft-wards on the sail slugs or boltrope in the mast slot. This may make it harder to secure the tack than if you secure the tack reef point first. Also harder to re-tension the luff. Plus the sail trim may be wonky once you do re-raise the main, because normally the sail is raised and luff tensioned before we mess with outhaul tension.
The standard reefing steps I've seen everywhere and all the old salts I know use & teach is same as *METHOD TWO*, which, from the article with a bit more details, is:
1) Ease the boom vang and then the mainsheet so both are slack. 2) Take up the topping lift so the boom is stabilized. 3) Lower the main halyard until the desired reefing tack cringle is in position. 4) Tighten and make fast the reefing tack line, or put the tack cringle onto the gooseneck hook, ring or shackle. 5) Hoist the main halyard until the luff is firm and wrinkle-free. 6) Take in the reefing clew line, or luff cringle [...] as much as possible, and make fast. 7) Ease the main topping lift. 8) Trim the mainsheet. 9) Tighten the boom vang.
My most common mistake in the sequence is, I forget to ease the topping lift, until I've sailed off with the reef in and then notice something seems off about the boom position and/or sail trim.
Also...
First, secure the topping lift, as you're about to lower the main sail and don't want the boom falling down.
Having a smart setup for your topping lift is part of safe quick easy reefing.
To quote from the reefing 101 article I posted earlier: "Topping lifts and clew lines should never terminate at or near the end of the boom; these would potentially require the crew to hang dangerously over the lifelines to access them." Another hazard, even if you can safely reach the aft end of boom, is getting smacked or yanked around by the boom while trying to secure/release anything near its aft end. Much more force and movement at aft end!
So as with clew reefing lines, have working end of topping lift within easy reach from front of cockpit and/or companionway.
Two basic options:
1) Fixed end at masthead, to small block near aft end of boom, and then forward along boom to clamcleat in same fore-aft vicinity as clew reefing & outhaul cleats. This is how mine is set up - in one of the photos I posted you can see the small block near aft end of boom for topping lift line. It is on port side, as there is not reasonably room for another line on starboard side if there are two reefs plus outhaul. Less so on the smaller boom of an M15. It's easy to work topping lift by touch from starboard side by just reaching under the boom where the clew reefing & outhaul cleats are. Also less likely to be mistaken for a clew reefing line in 'urgent' (panic!) situations.
2) Fixed end at aft end of boom, thru block at/near masthead, and down mast to cleat near base, in vicinity of tack reefing cleats (on port side for same reasons as when on boom).
I consider 1) better because no need for an additional block at masthead. If anything fouls or jams up there when you need that topping lift working....not good!
cheers, John
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
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.
participants (4)
-
brad kurlancheek -
Douglas Kelch -
Edward Epifani -
John Schinnerer