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What's your project list?

The consensus over the years leans against single-line reefing. One recent exception is the single-line reefing setup on the J/88 - maybe you can find one to look at. I like getting the luff set up tight and then grinding in the clew reef separately.

If you lead the reefing lines down and aft, make sure the gooseneck can handle the odd loads. Mine couldn't and I had to go back to using the hooks for the tack reef. If there's a good-sized vertical bolt attaching the gooseneck to the mast lugs, you should be able to find a hook assembly for it. Or Svendsen's Metal Shop can make you one.
 
BobJ said:
The consensus over the years leans against single-line reefing.
Click to expand...

Yep. And I'd say if your boat isn't already set up with halyard and reef lines going to the cockpit, don't bother, just do it all at the mast. I went to the trouble of installing all the hardware needed for single line reefing to the cockpit, and then regretted it. Tons of friction and lots of swear words and still needed to get on the cabin top to help crank in the clew end anyway. But!

Then I "invented" a new technique using the topping lift and now I love it! Of course, this is probably how most people do it and I'm just slow to the game. Obviously only works if you have a topping lift and no rigid vang.
1: release the vang
2: drop the halyard some, but not all the way, so the reef cringle on the luff is still clear of the boom, gooseneck, etc. The reef line tends to foul on stuff if the cringle is all the way down.
3: pull the topping lift so the boom comes up to meet the reef cringle on the leech. Pull in the slack on the reef line -- easy peasy! Waaay less friction. Tie/clutch it off.
4: release the topping lift
5: drop the halyard the rest of the way and pull in the remaining slack
6: vang on

You'd think that during step 5 the clew end would quickly take any slack and ruin your nice tight reef, but for whatever reason this either hasn't happened or results in just a couple inches that need to be cranked back in. The whole process has made my 1st reef process go from about 5 minutes to less than 1. 2nd reef is also easier using the same process, but a little uglier since the lines and cheek blocks tend to foul with the sail folds from the 1st reef.
If I could go back in time put the effort and money toward other projects, however, I would. Reefing at the mast isn't so bad.

All that has added to my project list: modify mainsail so the bottom slides are on a loose line (whatever the proper term for that setup is), not stitched hard against the luff rope. Got a nice little tear cranking the luff cringle down toward the cheek block on the boom, instead of to the reef hook that it was designed for.

The rest of my own project list is very croozer related. I'll spare everyone the horror.
 
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Lanikai said:
Yep. And I'd say if your boat isn't already set up with halyard and reef lines going to the cockpit, don't bother, just do it all at the mast. I went to the trouble of installing all the hardware needed for single line reefing to the cockpit, and then regretted it. Tons of friction and lots of swear words and still needed to get on the cabin top to help crank in the clew end anyway. But!

Then I "invented" a new technique using the topping lift and now I love it! Of course, this is probably how most people do it and I'm just slow to the game. Obviously only works if you have a topping lift and no rigid vang.
1: release the vang
2: drop the halyard some, but not all the way, so the reef cringle on the luff is still clear of the boom, gooseneck, etc. The reef line tends to foul on stuff if the cringle is all the way down.
3: pull the topping lift so the boom comes up to meet the reef cringle on the leech. Pull in the slack on the reef line -- easy peasy! Waaay less friction. Tie/clutch it off.
4: release the topping lift
5: drop the halyard the rest of the way and pull in the remaining slack
6: vang on

You'd think that during step 5 the clew end would quickly take any slack and ruin your nice tight reef, but for whatever reason this either hasn't happened or results in just a couple inches that need to be cranked back in. The whole process has made my 1st reef process go from about 5 minutes to less than 1. 2nd reef is also easier using the same process, but a little uglier since the lines and cheek blocks tend to foul with the sail folds from the 1st reef.
If I could go back in time put the effort and money toward other projects, however, I would. Reefing at the mast isn't so bad.

All that has added to my project list: modify mainsail so the bottom slides are on a loose line (whatever the proper term for that setup is), not stitched hard against the luff rope. Got a nice little tear cranking the luff cringle down toward the cheek block on the boom, instead of to the reef hook that it was designed for.

The rest of my own project list is very croozer related. I'll spare everyone the horror.
Click to expand...

Wow, I am going to try that reefing method. I have run out of swear words when to comes to reefing my boat. I can not remember not having to go up to the mast to sort out some crapola or another with my single line system.

BTW my swear word inventory was significantly beefed up when my Aussie brother in law recently visited. Those guys down there must have nothing better to do than invent new ways to cuss. Even G rated language is ...well...creative. He's a pilot in New Guinea I asked him what it was like at night. Apparently it is "darker than the inside of a dead cow"
 
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Yeah, the notion that all your lines should be led back to the cockpit...I am very much not so sure.

It's nice to be able to drop the main from the cockpit and be close to the tiller...yes it is, and I do that a lot when coming into my marina, because I can sail in to about 75 yards from my berth. However, pretty much every other time I hoist or drop, I'm doing something at the base of the mast. Absolutely, for reefing, have to be at the mast. If I ever have a cruising boat, absolutely the halyard winches will be on pads, on the mast. If not there, then 2 feet away from the mast on the cabintop with a jammer in-line between the winch and the turning block.

The same goes for dropping the headsail. You stand in the middle of the boat, pop the jammer and then dash forward while the headsail tumbles down, half of it overboard. It makes no sense. Better would be to have a dedicated winch up there with a turning block at the base of the mast, situated so you can take the tail of the jib halyard forward and control it as you gather the headsail in as it comes down.

The one halyard that really makes sense to me to have terminate near the cockpit is the spinnaker.
 
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mike cunningham said:
BTW my swear word inventory was significantly beefed up when my Aussie brother in law recently visited. Those guys down there must have nothing better to do than invent new ways to cuss. Even G rated language is ...well...creative. He's a pilot in New Guinea I asked him what it was like at night. Apparently it is "darker than the inside of a dead cow"
Click to expand...

This sounds like how they talk in the south though I think the good Cajun folks of Louisiana might have us all beat! I should ask my ex who was born and raised in deep, rural North Florida. He once mentioned something about shortnin bread, and since I looked so clueless, he called up his parents and they actually knew all the words to this song and sang it over the phone. I can't remember all the best sayings, but the one I still use the most is, "the faster you go, the behinder you get." To your children when they misbehave, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it." And if you really love pork, it's the whole animal that goes on the spit, which is so delish that nothing will be left "from he rooter to the tooter." Shall I stop now...?
 
Gamayun said:
This sounds like how they talk in the south though I think the good Cajun folks of Louisiana might have us all beat! I should ask my ex who was born and raised in deep, rural North Florida. He once mentioned something about shortnin bread, and since I looked so clueless, he called up his parents and they actually knew all the words to this song and sang it over the phone. I can't remember all the best sayings, but the one I still use the most is, "the faster you go, the behinder you get." To your children when they misbehave, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it." And if you really love pork, it's the whole animal that goes on the spit, which is so delish that nothing will be left "from he rooter to the tooter." Shall I stop now...?
Click to expand...

We need to get busy inventing some sailing slang. I'll ask my Aussie colleagues to put their minds to it. My guess is there are a lot of good ones already fully developed.
 
Back to serious projects! Mine is keeping the @#&%$ (or whatever an Aussie would say) Tides Marine track hooked into the clips on the mast. Gordie and have had the mast out 3 times and I'm still pulling track off at the bottom batten. But then Wyliecats are weird I suppose. %@?&+ it all!
 
BobJ said:
The consensus over the years leans against single-line reefing. One recent exception is the single-line reefing setup on the J/88 - maybe you can find one to look at. I like getting the luff set up tight and then grinding in the clew reef separately.

If you lead the reefing lines down and aft, make sure the gooseneck can handle the odd loads. Mine couldn't and I had to go back to using the hooks for the tack reef. If there's a good-sized vertical bolt attaching the gooseneck to the mast lugs, you should be able to find a hook assembly for it. Or Svendsen's Metal Shop can make you one.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much,
 
Lanikai said:
Yep. And I'd say if your boat isn't already set up with halyard and reef lines going to the cockpit, don't bother, just do it all at the mast. I went to the trouble of installing all the hardware needed for single line reefing to the cockpit, and then regretted it. Tons of friction and lots of swear words and still needed to get on the cabin top to help crank in the clew end anyway. But!

Then I "invented" a new technique using the topping lift and now I love it! Of course, this is probably how most people do it and I'm just slow to the game. Obviously only works if you have a topping lift and no rigid vang.
1: release the vang
2: drop the halyard some, but not all the way, so the reef cringle on the luff is still clear of the boom, gooseneck, etc. The reef line tends to foul on stuff if the cringle is all the way down.
3: pull the topping lift so the boom comes up to meet the reef cringle on the leech. Pull in the slack on the reef line -- easy peasy! Waaay less friction. Tie/clutch it off.
4: release the topping lift
5: drop the halyard the rest of the way and pull in the remaining slack
6: vang on

You'd think that during step 5 the clew end would quickly take any slack and ruin your nice tight reef, but for whatever reason this either hasn't happened or results in just a couple inches that need to be cranked back in. The whole process has made my 1st reef process go from about 5 minutes to less than 1. 2nd reef is also easier using the same process, but a little uglier since the lines and cheek blocks tend to foul with the sail folds from the 1st reef.
If I could go back in time put the effort and money toward other projects, however, I would. Reefing at the mast isn't so bad.

All that has added to my project list: modify mainsail so the bottom slides are on a loose line (whatever the proper term for that setup is), not stitched hard against the luff rope. Got a nice little tear cranking the luff cringle down toward the cheek block on the boom, instead of to the reef hook that it was designed for.

The rest of my own project list is very croozer related. I'll spare everyone the horror.
Click to expand...
Thank you, friction bothers me, too.
I will try,
Like from BobJ's post suggested, I will stay with slab.
 
I know there's been talk among some about not bringing a spinnaker. One of the first projects I will undertake when I get home is setting my boat up for easy spinnaker handling.
My passage to Kauai this year was fraught with light wind. I had no spinnaker. Although we were just cruising to Hawaii, I was still.kicking myself for not bringing one. I discovered that light to no wind on an ocean crossing is more terrifying than a gale...at least for me.
 
Steevee said:
I know there's been talk among some about not bringing a spinnaker. One of the first projects I will undertake when I get home is setting my boat up for easy spinnaker handling.
My passage to Kauai this year was fraught with light wind. I had no spinnaker. Although we were just cruising to Hawaii, I was still.kicking myself for not bringing one. I discovered that light to no wind on an ocean crossing is more terrifying than a gale...at least for me.
Click to expand...

That's for Carliane's boat, Kyntanna. Kyntanna is a Freedom 38...an "almost catboat". Look up pictures online. There is a foretriangle for a headssail, but it's a dinky little thing and the hoist only goes halfway up the mast. Well....3/5ths of the way. Using her standard halyards and so on, she'll get a spinnaker fit for a 28 foot boat, on her 38 foot cruiser. I kind of don't think that makes a lot of sense, but that's just me.
 
AlanH said:
That's for Carliane's boat, Kyntanna. Kyntanna is a Freedom 38...an "almost catboat". Look up pictures online. There is a foretriangle for a headssail, but it's a dinky little thing and the hoist only goes halfway up the mast. Well....3/5ths of the way. Using her standard halyards and so on, she'll get a spinnaker fit for a 28 foot boat, on her 38 foot cruiser. I kind of don't think that makes a lot of sense, but that's just me.
Click to expand...

Got it.
 
Wylieguy said:
Back to serious projects! Mine is keeping the @#&%$ (or whatever an Aussie would say) Tides Marine track hooked into the clips on the mast. Gordie and have had the mast out 3 times and I'm still pulling track off at the bottom batten. But then Wyliecats are weird I suppose. %@?&+ it all!
Click to expand...

I have a Tides Marine track, too, and the first night out on the LongPac I went to reef, but the thing pulls all the way down to the boom. What's the worse that can happen, I said, and kept on sailing. The next morning, I needed to unreef and figured that as the halyard tensions up, the track will rise with it. No go. And that big pouch in the sail is messing with my racer mentality, so I did what any self respecting sailor would do...got the crow bar and hammer out (ask Michael Jefferson - they're my favorite tools). That @#&%$ track still never fully went all the way back up until I was back in the estuary 3 1/2 days later and could really pound on it. Thanks for reminding me to put this on the list. I had burnished it from my memory till now!
 
Gamayun said:
I have a Tides Marine track, too, and the first night out on the LongPac I went to reef, but the thing pulls all the way down to the boom. What's the worse that can happen, I said, and kept on sailing. The next morning, I needed to unreef and figured that as the halyard tensions up, the track will rise with it. No go. And that big pouch in the sail is messing with my racer mentality, so I did what any self respecting sailor would do...got the crow bar and hammer out (ask Michael Jefferson - they're my favorite tools). That @#&%$ track still never fully went all the way back up until I was back in the estuary 3 1/2 days later and could really pound on it. Thanks for reminding me to put this on the list. I had burnished it from my memory till now!
Click to expand...

What variety of hammer was employed? Everything works better (crowbars, drift pins, screw drivers, wrenches) with a 3 lb drilling hammer.
 
JohnS said:
What variety of hammer was employed? Everything works better (crowbars, drift pins, screw drivers, wrenches) with a 3 lb drilling hammer.
Click to expand...

It's quite a small hammer actually. I also have a sledgehammer (what I believe you're calling a drilling hammer) for when I'm really frustrated, which I was after this weekend's sail to Drakes Bay. The @#&%$ track slipped again right off the bat and conditions were too big to go pounding on it though in hindsight I really should have tried because it created a huge pooch in the sail when I wasn't reefed. This meant I couldn't point well, which in a Freedom is already a problem, and it was just a huge bash all the way up there. So now this item and fixing the reef lines have moved up to the top spots on my list...getting a back up navigation system has also moved up in priority, too, after navigating Drakes Bay in the dark with chart alone.
 
My problem isn't the track sliding down. There's a large bolt holding it in place at the top that also serves as the sail stop (the bottom is loose so it can flex when the unsupported Wylie carbon mast bends off to leeward in a blow - 3 feet or more - which bends the mast, shortening the track distance - like belly wrinkles when us older slightly overweight guys bend over). The problem is the track "jumps" off the clips where the battens land against the mast. Creates a "pooch" in the track which I can sort of smooth out by over trimming the dowhhaul - the tack "floats" so the downhaul is the Cunningham. I'll put more clips where the bottom batten lands, creating an almost solid "clip" for the track to slide onto. Since the mast flexes the track needs to move up and down. Sort of complicated to describe to the "shroud crowd."

I had a real hammer on my Newport 30 - came with the boat. I never figured out why. But it sat in the tool drawer rusting away for as long as I owned the boat. Didn't help me go faster! --Pat ;-)
 
All kidding about the improved function of wrenches and screwdrivers aside, the drilling hammer (mini-sledge) is much more persuasive for things like moving stuck roll pins and other suck ilk. Or more aptly for us in the "shroud crowd" punching clevis pins out of chain plates in the unfortunate event that such surgery should become necessary. With the much larger mass of the drilling hammer you need not wail at the object of your affection with reckless abandon, so your efforts are likely to be more accurate. Plus, the mini-sledge has a much larger face so improved odds of making actual contact. If you ever have a chance to work on some recalcitrant pins in a shop setting, try it with a 16 oz claw hammer (what most of us envision when someone says "hammer") and then with the drilling hammer. It's an interesting experiment.

As for making you go faster, you need to relocate said hammer from the drawer to the bottom of the bilge.

John (who is now possessed of a strong urge to have an up close look at a Wyliecat 30 mast)
 
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