Bolo
Contributing Partner
First of all I have an E-32III, which has two reefing control lines that lead back to the cockpit. Both go through line breaks (in the cockpit), are then lead to the base of the mast, up to and through the boom to the back end and then through their own specific cringles that line up with the 1st and 2nd reefing points along the sail. When I need the reef I drop the sail to a point where I can put the cringle in the luff of the sail over the rams head at the front of the boom and then pull the head of the sail up again to tighten the luff with the cringle as the new tack. Then I pull in the reefing line (that goes back to the cockpit) to pull the leech down to the boom. Last step is to tie down the reefing points along the new "foot" of the sail.
(I know that many of you know this drill but I wanted to post it for those not a familiar with it.)
Now with a in-cock pit reefing system the reefing control line runs through the cringle in the leech and the luff (making it's way there with the help of two cheek blocks) eliminating the need to go forward and put the rams head through the reefing cringle (new tack point) in the luff. So it seems to me that I'm almost there as far as a total "from the cockpit" reefing system goes at least for the first reefing line. All I would need to do would be to add a cheek block at the back end of the boom so that instead of the reefing line stopping at the cringle in the leech it would then go down to the cheek block and forward to another new cheek block at the front end of the boom and the up to the cringle in the luff (that lined up with the reefing ties and was the "new tack point" when reefing the old way). Hope I explained that clearly and correctly!
The one thing I've noticed with the "all from the cockpit" single line reefing systems is that there is no mention is made about tying down the reefing points along the foot of the sail after the sail is in it's reefing position. Seems to me that you still need to go forward to do this to keep the sail flat in a big blow.
Has anyone done the sort of thing I've described to their boat? I realize that a 32 footer maybe a little too big for an "all from the cockpit" reefing system but maybe not and that's is why I'm asking the questions, what do you think? If you have in line reefing what do you do about the reef points along the foot? Is this modification I'm thinking about flawed in some way or has it been done before and I've just not seen it yet?
Sometimes when I come up with an idea, as it relates to sailing or anything else, and I've not seen it done yet I think that my idea is probably flawed is some way. Maybe it's the case here. Let me know!
(I know that many of you know this drill but I wanted to post it for those not a familiar with it.)
Now with a in-cock pit reefing system the reefing control line runs through the cringle in the leech and the luff (making it's way there with the help of two cheek blocks) eliminating the need to go forward and put the rams head through the reefing cringle (new tack point) in the luff. So it seems to me that I'm almost there as far as a total "from the cockpit" reefing system goes at least for the first reefing line. All I would need to do would be to add a cheek block at the back end of the boom so that instead of the reefing line stopping at the cringle in the leech it would then go down to the cheek block and forward to another new cheek block at the front end of the boom and the up to the cringle in the luff (that lined up with the reefing ties and was the "new tack point" when reefing the old way). Hope I explained that clearly and correctly!
The one thing I've noticed with the "all from the cockpit" single line reefing systems is that there is no mention is made about tying down the reefing points along the foot of the sail after the sail is in it's reefing position. Seems to me that you still need to go forward to do this to keep the sail flat in a big blow.
Has anyone done the sort of thing I've described to their boat? I realize that a 32 footer maybe a little too big for an "all from the cockpit" reefing system but maybe not and that's is why I'm asking the questions, what do you think? If you have in line reefing what do you do about the reef points along the foot? Is this modification I'm thinking about flawed in some way or has it been done before and I've just not seen it yet?
Sometimes when I come up with an idea, as it relates to sailing or anything else, and I've not seen it done yet I think that my idea is probably flawed is some way. Maybe it's the case here. Let me know!