I'm going to be rigging my boat with reefing lines so curious to know what size you used on her?
Cheers,
Mike
Cheers,
Mike
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Reef lines, Rigging considerations
- Thread starter kiwisailor
- Start date
Three-eights. That works best for my blocks and clutches. The size is a little small for the Barient 19 self-tailers on the cabin house, but I can make them self-tail by putting five or six turns on the drum.
Another soluton -> We use spectra for the tack reef lines that's girth hitched ("luggage tagged") to enough 8mm (maybe it's 10mm?) VPC at the cockpit end for the winches. We like the low stretch, slippery through the cringles, high resistance to chafe, less water absorption, and especially with a deep second reef it decreases weight aloft. When we eventually need to redo the tack lines we'll probably do the same.
I like Ryan's idea. Slippery small-diameter reef lines such as Spectra have great appeal, since there is so much friction in standard setups. Like to hear from anyone else who has done it.
There are options such as stripping the cover and or adding cover internally or externally to benefit rope clutches that would otherwise slip.
Allow me to note a rigging mistake I made, which resulted in some potentially expensive chafe in new line, discovered after a brisk sailing day.
Many booms are like mine: in addition to internal reef lines they contain purchases for outhaul and topping lift.
In changing or installing internal reef lines, I use a fish tape. But this time, I managed to run the reef lines inside one of the turning blocks purchases. This isn't noticeable most of the time, but it is not good--and in my case, resulted in an invisible clash of hidden gear that quietly destroyed a section of one reef line.
The issue is the difficulty of seeing what you're doing inside a 16" boom. A high-powered flashlight is almost mandatory.
In correcting my mistake, we found turning the boom upsidedown helped sort out the interior blocks. It still took multiple tries to assure the reef lines had a straight shot.
A nearby rigger, watching all this, called out: "the outhaul and topping lift have to be tight first!"
She was right: The boom was detached, and the interior blocks were not stretched out.
I also realized, in the search for reduced friction, that my 33-year-old Schaefer deck organizer sheaves hardly turn at all. Funny I never noticed that.
New ones on order.
There are options such as stripping the cover and or adding cover internally or externally to benefit rope clutches that would otherwise slip.
Allow me to note a rigging mistake I made, which resulted in some potentially expensive chafe in new line, discovered after a brisk sailing day.
Many booms are like mine: in addition to internal reef lines they contain purchases for outhaul and topping lift.
In changing or installing internal reef lines, I use a fish tape. But this time, I managed to run the reef lines inside one of the turning blocks purchases. This isn't noticeable most of the time, but it is not good--and in my case, resulted in an invisible clash of hidden gear that quietly destroyed a section of one reef line.
The issue is the difficulty of seeing what you're doing inside a 16" boom. A high-powered flashlight is almost mandatory.
In correcting my mistake, we found turning the boom upsidedown helped sort out the interior blocks. It still took multiple tries to assure the reef lines had a straight shot.
A nearby rigger, watching all this, called out: "the outhaul and topping lift have to be tight first!"
She was right: The boom was detached, and the interior blocks were not stretched out.
I also realized, in the search for reduced friction, that my 33-year-old Schaefer deck organizer sheaves hardly turn at all. Funny I never noticed that.
New ones on order.
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