Members' Online Book: Sail Handling and Rigging Made Easy, Chapter 7 of 38

Reefing From The Cockpit 2.0—Thinking Things Through

Published Feb 8, 2015 85 comments Updated March 6, 2020
The perfect reef at last?

The perfect reef at last?

Some time ago I wrote a piece on reefing from the cockpit and promised to follow it up once we’d decided whether we would stick with it. For those of you who expected something, well, timely, I apologise, but I like to take my time to make up my mind!

Basically, when we had Pèlerin built we had a choice of either leaving all of the reefing at the mast (as we were used to) or leading all the lines aft. Apart from a few short jaunts, I’d not had a lot of experience with single line reefing, but I hadn’t been impressed; however, others claimed to like it, and the idea of reefing from the safety of the cockpit held a strong appeal.

Having now sailed many thousands of miles with single line reefing I feel better qualified to decide whether it was the right choice for us, and indeed whether I’d recommend it for you.

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Meet the Author

Colin Speedie

Colin, European Correspondent here at AAC, is a deeply experienced offshore sailor who holds a Yachtmaster licence, and a gifted photographer and talented writer who has added a whole new dimension to Attainable Adventure Cruising. In addition, since Colin and Louise are from England and had their OVNI 435, Pèlerin built in France, they bring a European perspective to our site. You can read more about Colin and Louise and their business at their website.

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