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Thread: What's your project list?

  1. #21
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    Sep 2007
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    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.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Berkeley Marina
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    154

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    The consensus over the years leans against single-line reefing.
    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.
    Last edited by Lanikai; 08-10-2017 at 12:18 PM.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Discovery Bay, CA
    Posts
    496

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lanikai View Post
    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.
    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"
    Last edited by mike cunningham; 08-10-2017 at 03:15 PM.

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

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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.
    Last edited by AlanH; 08-10-2017 at 03:45 PM.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
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  5. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
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    803

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    Quote Originally Posted by mike cunningham View Post
    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"
    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...?

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Discovery Bay, CA
    Posts
    496

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamayun View Post
    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...?
    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.

  7. #27
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    Sep 2007
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    3,688

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    Drake's Bay races this weekend make me as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
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    803

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Drake's Bay races this weekend make me as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!
    You ain't right.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Santa Rosa
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    644

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    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!

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    5

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    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.
    Thank you so much,

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