SO34.2 Jiffy Reefing
May 9, 2011 3:04:45 GMT
Post by so40gtb on May 9, 2011 3:04:45 GMT
I'm more than a bit embarassed about this one. While working with Sparcraft on the replacement of a worn gooseneck block, I discovered that our reefing lines have never been properly rigged, at least by Sparcraft's drawings.
Both reefing lines have passed from the tail end of the boom to the gooseneck and then downward to the mast base and back to the cabintop winches since we acquired our boat from her previous owner. We simply assumed that an excursion to the mast to clip the luff reef point to the hook at the gooseneck was an inherent part of the reefing ritual, or vice versa. Though spouse Denni and I have this down to a nearly-blind routine now, it's not the best situation, especially in unexpectedly and sudden heavy weather.
The Sparcraft drawings enlightened us that the lines should go not over, but under the boom's front sheaves, passing up through the luff reefing points, and then downward to the blocks at the mast base. This arrangement achieves true jiffy reefing, as both the leech and luff reefing points can be pulled down to the boom with a single line, from the cabintop. So we did this today (with some minor grief involving tangled lines inside the boom and a fair amount of bird-nest materials stored therein) and, voila!, both reefing lines had minimal slack once deployed (how we got the shorter line on the first reef and the longer on the second is complete happenstance - not to ever be repeated I'm sure!).
The issue in all of this is the original Elvstrom lazy bag, which has no slits for these reefing lines near the gooseneck. If the reefing lines are routed outside the bag, it appear that the sail and bag will foul each other when a line is pulled in. But if the lines are rigged inside the bag (which is what we did), then the bag's front eyelets can't be attached to the hooks atop the gooseneck's vertical bolt; i.e., it has no (or minimal) forward point of attachment.
Anyway, the conclusion we draw is that the bag needs more slits, both fore and aft, and probably ought to be a good 15-25 cm (6-10") longer to fit properly and truly accommodate the reefing lines. (Of course, the neighborhood sail shop is fully booked for the next 8 weeks and can't modify the bag anytime soon.) For the time being (and we've not tried this out on the water yet due to a two-month delay in seasonal temperatures this year), we are depending on a small line from the upper eyelets of the mast end of the lazy bag, around the boom, to keep the bag in place near the gooseneck.
Am I really off base here in how we've rigged this? Has anyone else been down this road?
--Karl
Both reefing lines have passed from the tail end of the boom to the gooseneck and then downward to the mast base and back to the cabintop winches since we acquired our boat from her previous owner. We simply assumed that an excursion to the mast to clip the luff reef point to the hook at the gooseneck was an inherent part of the reefing ritual, or vice versa. Though spouse Denni and I have this down to a nearly-blind routine now, it's not the best situation, especially in unexpectedly and sudden heavy weather.
The Sparcraft drawings enlightened us that the lines should go not over, but under the boom's front sheaves, passing up through the luff reefing points, and then downward to the blocks at the mast base. This arrangement achieves true jiffy reefing, as both the leech and luff reefing points can be pulled down to the boom with a single line, from the cabintop. So we did this today (with some minor grief involving tangled lines inside the boom and a fair amount of bird-nest materials stored therein) and, voila!, both reefing lines had minimal slack once deployed (how we got the shorter line on the first reef and the longer on the second is complete happenstance - not to ever be repeated I'm sure!).
The issue in all of this is the original Elvstrom lazy bag, which has no slits for these reefing lines near the gooseneck. If the reefing lines are routed outside the bag, it appear that the sail and bag will foul each other when a line is pulled in. But if the lines are rigged inside the bag (which is what we did), then the bag's front eyelets can't be attached to the hooks atop the gooseneck's vertical bolt; i.e., it has no (or minimal) forward point of attachment.
Anyway, the conclusion we draw is that the bag needs more slits, both fore and aft, and probably ought to be a good 15-25 cm (6-10") longer to fit properly and truly accommodate the reefing lines. (Of course, the neighborhood sail shop is fully booked for the next 8 weeks and can't modify the bag anytime soon.) For the time being (and we've not tried this out on the water yet due to a two-month delay in seasonal temperatures this year), we are depending on a small line from the upper eyelets of the mast end of the lazy bag, around the boom, to keep the bag in place near the gooseneck.
Am I really off base here in how we've rigged this? Has anyone else been down this road?
--Karl
