DaySailer.org Forum

I have copied a section of the O'Day book here. But would love a picture of someone having reefed their main to help me make sense of how its supposed to look.

Specifically, where it says :

Sixth lock your
boom back into place by letting the boom go forward and tighten up halyard When
reefed, the boom block for the mainsheet is attached to the roller reefing claw.

Roller Reefing
A "Roller Reefing Claw" is necessary. Your mainsail can be easily reefed, as the boat is
equipped with a spring loaded gooseneck. First remove the block in the middle of the
boom. Second, release the main halyard but keep it under tension. Third, pull the boom
back from the mast so that you can turn it. Fourth, roll the boom either way as you or
your crew lets off slowly on the halyard. The sail will roll on the boom. Fifth, when you
have rolled about 5 or 6 times, you will have reduced your sail area by one third.
Experience will teach you how much to reef under various conditions. Sixth lock your
boom back into place by letting the boom go forward and tighten up halyard When
reefed, the boom block for the mainsheet is attached to the roller reefing claw. To shake
out, just reverse procedure.

I have eyelets on the luff and leech, but I would love to see how these work with the reefing hook. I have got great explanations but a picture or two would really help.

Thanks in advance.

The grommets on the leech and luff are for the reefline used in jiffy reefing or slab reefing. They are not used in roller reefing. Roller reefing is something that might have make sense a long time ago. I'm thinking that using a claw on modern sail cloth would be a big no-no. As I'm not trying to sail a museum piece, I decided early on to not spend time on mastering the intricacies of that particular technique.

Don't suppose you would have a couple of pictures of how the lines work in reefing the main ?

I can't seem to get my head around where the reefing line attaches to the mast and the boom.

Do you just put a stopper knot through the grommet you want to reef from on the luff, and then tie the lowered main with that and attach to the boom via the corresponding grommet on the leech ?

Does that mean that the reefing hook that is attached plays no part in this ?

I've tried reefing with the roller reefing and with slab or jiffy reefing. The only reason to use the roller reefing is if you don't have reefing points in your sail. Since you do, you should go with that. Sail Rite sells a kit (https://www.sailrite.com/Jiffy-Reefing-Kit_2?srsltid=AfmBOopLo5DHPieytrDvb8U0SJAGthpkLO9cJJlS76rDEGI_4uVDk6Wg) that provides all the hardware you need (including the reef points and sail patches for those that need to modify their sails). Even if you don't buy their kit, the diagram on the product page is very helpful. Folks have come up with variations on how to rig it, but the basic concept is illustrated well there.

Thats excellent, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Thats exactly what I was looking for. How this all ties in...

Thank you.

In my case, rather than separate reefing lines for clew and tack, I set mine up with a single line.
Hardware differences:

At the aft end of the boom, I installed the strap eye on the starboard side of the boom.
I replaced my outhaul block with a double block that carries both the outhaul and the reefing line.
At the forward end of the boom, I installed the bullet block on the port side.
On the mast, I installed a single jam cleat on the starboard side.

The single reefing line thus runs like this:
1. Fixed end of the reefing line is tied to the strap eye at the aft end of the boom.
2. up to the reefing grommet (reef clew)
3. back down to the double block at aft end of boom
4. forward to the bullet block
5. up through the reefing tack grommet
6. down to the jam cleat.

All the operation is at the mast:
1. Ease the mainsheet.
2. Release downhaul and vang.
3. Pull the reefing line until the reef clew and reef tack are tight to the boom.
4. Ease the main halyard to return the boom to proper height.
5. Tie up sail with intermediate sail ties.

(Still new to this and getting pretty comfortable drilling extra holes in most parts of my boat, so I'm open to hearing how I've done this all wrong.)

I also have a single reefing line, but in my view that was a bit of a mistake. There's simply too much friction in the system to allow me to pull at the end of that single line in one go. However, I can operate clew and tack separately anyway, by reaching around the boom and pulling on the middle of the line first (to pull tight the tack) and then taking the slack out in front and getting the tack settled. That works, and having a single line makes it so I don't need to fish for an end. (I like continuous lines and always tie the ends of my jibsheets together).

I did sail on another boat, not a DS, that had a reef hook. I wasn't aware of that when I set up my system, but it may work well in combination with a line just for the clew. The hook means that the tack has a very firm anchor and it's not dependent on how tight you pull your reefline. It was also super quick to set. If starting from scratch on another boat, that's probably the route I'd go.

My hardware (for those that like to compare):

1. One eye strap towards the end of the boom, but not at the very end.
2. One reef grommet in the leech of the main (clew)
3. One cheek block, in vertical line directly below the reef grommet.
4. One cheek block at either side of the boom near the mast (front of the boom)
5. One reef grommet in the luff of the boom.
6. One smallest size cam cleat on the side of the boom, about a foot aft of the mast

The line is very thin dyneema core with a tough mantle. Very thin to keep it light, and smooth to reduce friction as much as possible. The line runs through the hardware from 1-6 except that item 4 references a pair of blocks one on each side, so the line goes 4 (port)-5 (tack) -4 (starboard).

1 and 2 aren't directly opposite of each other, that way, one leg of the reef line pulls down, while the other pulls back (and down). This avoids either the clew lifting from the boom or not enough tension in the new foot (the reefline works a bit like an outhaul).

I've rotated cam cleat so it points down. Mostly because it's convenient for letting the tail hang down to the cuddy edge and since I don't reef all that often, I mostly need to use it to take slack out of the reefline, for which a pull down is convenient. Have observed no ill effects in actual use (I did add a wire fairlead to the cleat).

Operation. I'm going to list mine, again for reference.

1. Start by heaving to
2. Mainsheet is eased, I stand up on the windward side
3. My halyard is cleated on the Starboard side, so if that is the windward side, I am on starboard tack, which is what you want when you are busy -- all other recreational vessels need to give way. (The ones for which there would be exceptions are typically commercial - so we check first that we are clear on that front.)
4. My halyard is marked to where it needs to be cleated with the first ref in.
5. Ease the halyard to the mark, and cleat.
6. Let out vang.
7. Reach under boom and pull the new clew down to the boom, then reach in front and pull the new tack down to boom.
8. Set up proper tension in the reef line and cleat
9. Stuff the folds of the sail loosely between the boom and the stretched part between the new clew and tack. With stiff sail cloth, there's no need to tie anything down.
10. Re-tighten vang.
11. Sit down and start sailing (as explained here).

Here's a picture of sailing with the reef in:

Sailing with first reef in. Click to enlarge.

You can clearly see (or at least "guess") the location of the eye strap. The reefline looks like it could have been set up a bit harder (the clew grommet looks like it could come down more) and we didn't spend a lot of time stowing the loose sail, but with stiff cloth, it wasn't flogging.