lovely day in Sydney today. set off at about 11am up the harbour with the outgoing tide. only about 5knots of wind though so it was slow going. I decided to go out past the heads where thered be more wind but there was also some messy swell. the wind picked up to about 25 while i was out there and i had full canvass.
As im not going the reefer/furler route, im finding ways to reduce canvas on my headsail from the cockpit.hanking on smaller sails under a working jib etc. Before i left the mooring i moved my jib dowhaul about 2 metres up from the tack with the D shackel on the forestay sitting on a hank. When this wind came up i was way overpowered and dealing with swell from everywhere too.
I was bit nervous to try this, but i did and it totally sorted me out. released the jib clutch, pulled the downhaul til it was at the block near the bow, cleated it off and had reduced headsail in about 3 seconds. This particular head sail is a reefable headsail and has an extra clew and tack cringle(is that the right words??)) Although this reefing worked great and was done in the safety of the cockpit, the higher clew cringle and sail shape at the leach wasnt the best on some angles on/off the wind. there was one sweet spot where the cringle wouldnt flog around. Once i got back into the harbour, i pulled the heady back up form the cockpit. worked great.
The next thing im going to try is a another jib sheet on the higher clew that will share the car with the other jib sheet, except it will be above the wheel. it will work, but it could be a bit messy. worth a try though. i do love my hank on sails and dont wanna change them.
the westerly came up in the harbour so i quickly unhanked the 1/2 heady and pulled up the #3 that was already hanked on underneath on another tack line. time on foredeck about 2 minutes tops. quickly reefed the main also and set off tacking up the harbour. To my amazement i got the boat balanced by accident. she steered herself for about 15 minutes. basically all the way from shark island to athol bay. i made videos of it. even when big wakes came straight at me, the boat corrected it self and stayed on course with no intervention from me at all. couldnt believe it.
for you old sailors this is probably nothing new, but im like a little kid with a new toy with this sailing caper. i bloody love it and theres so much to do and learn. it just fills me with wonder actually.
So i realised that it was kinda like heaving to. with the main on the traveller hard to windward and the job - well i dunno just trimmed, the boat was like heaved to . balanced, but sailing at 6 knots without me steering. Normally i cannot take my hand of the tiller for 1 second without an accidental gybe happening or something but this happened today and really blew my mind.
After all this excitement , i was hungry and in need of a coffee and a sandwich so i hove to for 15 minutes and made a brew before tacking back to woodford bay.
bloody lovely.
Just be careful, you want to pull the headsail down (and create a new tack) with something stronger than the hank. Is there room through one of the hank cringles to lash a shackle with some small dyneema?
Also, why not use a kite sheet to help with the new sheeting point rather than leave a sheet on there?
Once you have pulled the new tack down (bear away a lttle so not as much load on sheet) have a kite sheet set up ready to clip to higher clew cringle.
Attach and take the tension up. Then go fwd and take the jib sheet off the old clew cringle and onto the new one. Take tension up and release kite sheet.
I know it is 3 trips along the leward side but it would work and be clean
Select to expand quoteRamona said...
I can not access the videos.
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For some reason theyve gone. Theyre stilll in my youtube video but in youtube the share option isn't there. I posted last night just copying and pasting the url and it was working. Looks like youtube stopped it??
All good, but why not put a second car on the track, then the sheeting angle can be far enough forward to give you a good set with the reefed sail.
G'day SS,
Sounds like you're having fun!
What do you do with the foot (the flappy bit) once you have the reef in?
Is there a couple of eyelets through the sail at the new foot position?
THE OWNER OF THIS VIDEO HAS MADE IT PRIVATE
Steve- looks like you need to tweak the U Tube privacy settings.
Select to expand quoteYara said..
THE OWNER OF THIS VIDEO HAS MADE IT PRIVATE
Steve- looks like you need to tweak the U Tube privacy settings.
looks like the videos are working now
Select to expand quoterumblefish said..
Just be careful, you want to pull the headsail down (and create a new tack) with something stronger than the hank. Is there room through one of the hank cringles to lash a shackle with some small dyneema?
Also, why not use a kite sheet to help with the new sheeting point rather than leave a sheet on there?
Once you have pulled the new tack down (bear away a lttle so not as much load on sheet) have a kite sheet set up ready to clip to higher clew cringle.
Attach and take the tension up. Then go fwd and take the jib sheet off the old clew cringle and onto the new one. Take tension up and release kite sheet.
I know it is 3 trips along the leward side but it would work and be clean
youre totally right. next experiment next week will be using a larger D shackle on the actual tack cringle, and also a sheet through the clew cringle running through my Car and stowed til needed. My cars have a non friction little area above the wheel so im sure i can share the car and it keeps me moving forward. THe whole point of this is to not go forward unless i have to. In my mind this set up is for when youre on 1 tack only offshore.
Select to expand quotePhoenixStar said..
All good, but why not put a second car on the track, then the sheeting angle can be far enough forward to give you a good set with the reefed sail.
Hi pheonix. yes that makes sense, but first ill try share the car because above the wheel is a non friction area that will house another sheet. If it works ill use that. Cars are expensive and my tracks are easy to access from the cockpit.
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
G'day SS,
Sounds like you're having fun!
What do you do with the foot (the flappy bit) once you have the reef in?
Is there a couple of eyelets through the sail at the new foot position?
Once its reefed in, the foot is pretty much on the deck inside the lifelines. its not ideal and could fill up with water in certain conditions. this was just a little test. next week ill do it properly with the reef points made on the clew and tack cringles of my reefable head sail. Its a good sail with good shape and although yesterday was awesome, i didnt have the best sail shape as id just put the downhaul on a random hank rather than the tack cringle. I also wasnt using the clew cringle. Stay tuned til next week. ill make vids with the go pro. yaaaaaay
On mine, the first time I Reefed it, I stupidly left the original tack crinkle on the hard point , as well as the reef tack cringle. This stopped me from rolling up the foot, and through a couple of eyelets at the new foot line being able to lash the foot up nice and neatly. Looked a mess and filled with water.
Next time I disconnected the primary tack cringle, and she rolled up beautifully. One sail tie through the 3odd eyelets and it looked like a real sail!
Try making a a tapered line, 8mm spectra down to say 5mm dyneema. Run this line through the bow tack point, up through the new tack cringle and back down to the deck. This line round back to the cockpit and by pulling as you release halyard you have a 2:1 tackline on the jib the pull the luff down.
Should make it a bit easier
I found these two pages amongst my files. Hope they are of use to you Sectorsteve.
The above sketches are a pretty good example of headsail reefing although I would say the clew should be higher for the reef. Pointless having a deck sweeping headsail with a reef. Normally No2 and No3 headsails through to Number 5's etc will have progressively higher clews to keep the foot clear of the water. The foot of that reefed sail in the diagram is going to catch a lot of water!
