The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

A Dangerous Myth about Reefing

I was recently reading a reputable boating magazine that I respect when I came across a “rule of seamanship” that simply took my breath away, it was so wrong:

Reefing line(s) and hardware should be used to set a reef, not to take the full load. An easy way to reduce load is to use an earring. This is a length of line passed through the new clew and around the boom. A 3/8-inch line passed three times and knotted with a square knot serves fine. Once the reef is set, but while the sheets are still eased, simply lash the earring to the reefed clew. Slightly easing the reef line will put the load on the earring rather than the reef line. Because the reef line doesn’t hold the load, your reef lines won’t chafe through during a long passage.


Login to continue reading (scroll down)

More Articles From Online Book: Sail Handling and Rigging Made Easy:

  1. Six Reasons To Leave The Cockpit Often
  2. Don’t Forget About The Sails
  3. Your Mainsail Is Your Friend
  4. Hoisting the Mainsail Made Easy—Simplicity in Action
  5. Reefs: How Many and How Deep
  6. Reefing Made Easy
  7. Reefing From The Cockpit 2.0—Thinking Things Through
  8. Reefing Questions and Answers
  9. A Dangerous Myth about Reefing
  10. Mainsail Handling Made Easy with Lazyjacks
  11. Topping Lift Tips and a Hack
  12. 12 Reasons The Cutter Is A Great Offshore Voyaging Rig
  13. Cutter Rig—Should You Buy or Convert?
  14. Cutter Rig—Optimizing and/or Converting
  15. Cruising Rigs—Sloop, Cutter, or Solent?
  16. Sailboat Deck Layouts
  17. The Case For Roller-Furling Headsails
  18. UV Protection For Roller Furling Sails
  19. In-Mast, In-Boom, or Slab Reefing—Convenience and Reliability
  20. In-Mast, In-Boom, or Slab Reefing —Performance, Cost and Safety
  21. The Case For Hank On Headsails
  22. Making Life Easier—Roller Reefing/Furling
  23. Making Life Easier—Storm Jib
  24. Gennaker Furlers Come Of Age
  25. Swept-Back Spreaders—We Just Don’t Get It!
  26. Q&A: Staysail Stay: Roller Furling And Fixed Vs Hanks And Removable
  27. Rigid Vangs
  28. Rigging a Proper Preventer, Part 1
  29. Rigging a Proper Preventer—Part 2
  30. Amidships “Preventers”—A Bad Idea That Can Kill
  31. Keeping The Boom Under Control—Boom Brakes
  32. Downwind Sailing, Tips and Tricks
  33. Downwind Sailing—Poling Out The Jib
  34. Setting and Striking a Spinnaker Made Easy and Safe
  35. Ten Tips To Fix Weather Helm
  36. Running Rigging Recommendations—Part 1
  37. Running Rigging Recommendations—Part 2
  38. Two Dangerous Rigging Mistakes
  39. Rig Tuning, Part 1—Preparation
  40. Rig Tuning, Part 2—Understanding Rake and Bend
  41. Rig Tuning, Part 3—6 Steps to a Great Tune
  42. Rig Tuning, Part 4—Mast Blocking, Stay Tension, and Spreaders
  43. Rig Tuning, Part 5—Sailing Tune
  44. 12 Great Rigging Hacks
  45. 9 Tips To Make Unstepping a Sailboat Mast Easier
  46. Cruising Sailboat Spar Inspection
  47. Cruising Sailboat Standing Rigging Inspection
  48. Cruising Sailboat Running Rigging Inspection
  49. Cruising Sailboat Rig Wiring and Lighting Inspection
  50. Download Cruising Sailboat Rig Checklist
26 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
John Peltier

Have you written the editors? This is a safety-related issue that would be useful to read about in the next issue’s Letters to the Editor.

Marc Dacey

I appreciate it, John, as on Lake Ontario with a “skinny main” IOR-style boat as the majority of my boating practice, I’ve rarely taken in a reef. I just douse the headsail up to 32 knots or so. So I lack the experience with a more proportional sailing rig, like my steel cutter with a 15 instead of a 10 foot boom, to know when to reef (aside from “early and often”). In 14 years of sailing in some rough stuff, I have reefed under half a dozen times, despite being rigged most seasons to do so (slab reefing). Offshore, I’ve either been with racers who don’t reef as a point of pride, or with boats that have in-mast furling, which is a different set of decisions, in my view.

In other words, I would’ve tended to take the advice on “earings” at face value, because it sounds superficially seamanlike. Of course, so does your own advice, but I would give greater weight to the opinions of a fellow with tens of thousands of NM under his belt than those of a magazine, no matter how reputable.

So thanks for another gem I will tuck under my belt. If it’s any consolation, I do concentrate on the tack hook and the clew when reefing, and I do plan on having my cutter’s “ocean” main set with a deep first reef and a 40% second reef, because otherwise I’d need a trysail.

Frankly, even the steel beast goes hull speed under just an unreefed staysail and no main at 35 knots, so maybe I need to recalibrate or get that trysail and install a track for it!

Marc Dacey

Good to know. My mast is a very strong Selden with doubled uppers and two backstays, 11 5/16″ stays in all, plus a ridiculous number of halyards and lifts, about eight in all.

I believe I could take a parallel track for a trysail fairly easily, as I don’t think anyone makes “track gates” anymore.

So how have you rigged for a trysail on the current boat, John? A good cautionary tale, by the way. Nice bacon save!

C. Dan

Just went back and looked through your reefing slideshow, which is great.

Your systems are… beefy. Laughably so compared to my 28′ pocket cruiser (for which I am still planning the reef system).

But if this is the quality we have to look forward to for the A-40, I think there will be a lot of very happy customers.

Matt Marsh

Here’s another “rule of seamanship” that I wish would go away:

“When you’re near other boats, slow down.”

Yes, it sounds courteous and seamanlike. But a “typical” motor cruiser around here is a planing hull weighing in at 2 to 10 tonnes. Such a boat, at 20-25 knots, makes a relatively gentle wake and presents an obvious, predictable visual target. If its driver decides to be courteous and slows to 12 knots, the wake doubles in height and develops a nasty breaking crest, the bow trims so high that he can’t see ahead, and it gets harder for other skipper to judge his course. To us small-boat folks, this is Not Fun.

Common sense, once again, would be preferable: In many cases, I’d rather be passed by a 7-tonne cruiser that’s tracking a straight course at 25 knots than one that’s plowing a hole and yawing like crazy at 12 knots.

Marc Dacey

Could it be my seasons crewing in balls-out racing that means I’m not shy about telling other boats to “hold your course” or “I am taking your starboard/overtaking you”?

Lots of time spent looking at other boats closing on marks and trying to discern the lay line means I have a pretty good spatial awareness, an internal, meat-based AIS, if you will. This means if I see a potential collision, *and I have right of way as per COLREGS*, I will not hesitate to make my intentions clear to other boats.

This may or may not include slowing down, but usually not.

I agree with the preference for trawler-types over spastically helmed sailboats with dopey skippers. A boat like a Monk 36 will track like a streetcar and can be dealt with even in a restricted channel.

Jacques Landry

Right on John.

I was taught a quite similar rule by my late father, but to secure the mainsail clew, not the reef. I have twice seen a failure at that end while sailing, once on a small Kirby 25 (20 years ago) when the tie-up point just separated from the boom, and lately when the outhaul shackle snapped off while crossing between islands in the Caribbeans (few months ago). Both times it saved the day, the boom, whatever was under it and probably my skull! It was very easy to secure the clew with a piece of line so that the sail does not move forward. For the main clew I turn the line twice around the boom so it does not tend to move forward. But that is done before leaving port, not in heavy sea! In fact, it’s permanent as I rarely have to undo the mainsail clew.

Maybe the “expert” has extended the idea of securing the main clew to that of securing the reef clew, and why not in the process save the under-designed reefing system! Pushing a good idea too far has resulted in this monster!

I do exactly as you suggest with the “safety strop”, put in place once the boat is manageable. My main is loose footed, so if I can I tend to make it as tight as possible to reduce the gap between the clew and the boom, although it is not necessary as the leads are just slightly aft of the reef clews.

Another example of a “rule” that can (and often is) taken too far is the idea of letting a lot of chain (or line) on the anchor when in a storm. For sure more chain will hold better, but many “sailors” look at the rule, not it’s implications, and you end up with several boats 30 meters apart with way more chain on the anchor than that 30 meter.

Let see what happens if the wind shifts. Last Christmas I witnessed 3 boats tangled together (and banging each other) in a bay in Martinique. They had all chain out for the night, and woke up in the middle of it with a mess. They had to let their chain go, use their spare anchors and figure it out the next day. I know as I was the only one with a diving kit and air (or maybe the only to say I did ) and spent 2 hours below undoing anchors and untangling chains. I was not far from them but luckily the wind had shifted in the other direction!

What a fun day that was!

Jacques

Rikki

That is not a half hitch………

TJ

You are correct, Rikki. That’s a cow hitch.