Hi, Andrei: Why don't you bring your boat here to Milwaukee (it's only about an hour or so away from Madison) and I'd be happy to go over all of this with you. We can look over your boat's reefing gear, make any needed adjustments, and then take her out to practice reefing and changing sails. If it's real rough we can stay inside Milwaukee harbor (which is plenty big itself), or otherwise we can practice outside in some waves. Let me know. Gordon '83 M-17 "Sapphire" On May 7, 2009, at 6:27 PM, Andrei Caldararu wrote:

Hello all,

I am wondering how do you go from sailing in light wind to heavy wind, on the water, single handed? Say I have my mainsail up with my 150% genoa, and the wind perks up. I would like to go to a one-point reef in the main, with the 100% jib in the front. What steps do I take?

More importantly perhaps, I seem to have quite a bit of hardware on the boom and mast that I don't know how to use: my boom has a small block at the aft end, a jam cleat about 10 inches forward of that, and another block 10 inches further forward. On the opposite side of the boom, about where the second block is, there is also an eye mounted. On the mast, below where the gooseneck enters, are two jam cleats. The sail has got three reeefing points (I assume that's what they are: lines that come out of the sail on both sides of it) in a line about 10 inches above the foot of the sail. How do I make use of all this?

In the past, if the wind was blowing hard when I left the dock, I put up my 100% jib, and I reefed the main by doing the following: I ran the cunningham line through the second eye in the luff of the mainsail, ran it through one of the jam cleats on the mast, and put a figure 8 knot in it. Then I tied the lines from the reefing points around the boom, and finally I ran the outhaul through the eye and the block on the mast, jury rigging something that did not seem right. How does one do it properly, and what knots are to be used? Finally, even in light winds, how does one attach the outhaul (I assume I somehow should use the block at the end of the boom).

Thanks,

Andrei.

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!

Andrei, I changed out my original single line reefing method. All it did was create a rats nest when I was hauling the main and it got exponentially worse when I reefed because I had miles of slack line. Given the size and weight of the boom, here's what I did. I put a pad eye below and just a tad aft of each luff cringle. I put each side of the boom. I spliced a loop on each eye, ran the line up and through the cringle and back down to the other side of the boom through a small hollow base cleat and tied off a figure eight knot. To reef I simpy pull the line. If the sail doesn't come down it's easy to lift boom. At the leech, I put in one pad eye on the bottom of the boom as close to the goose neck as possible. I put a pair of blocks on each side of the boom, again as close to the gooseneck as possible. I then put a pair of hollow base small cleats about 2/3 back on each side of the boom.. I then run a line in the eye and put a knot on each side of the eye so that the line doesn't slide one way or the other. I leave enough line on each side to run up to the leech cringle, back down, through the turning block and back to the cleat, and put in a figure eight knot. Arrange your lines so that when you reef the first point both luff and leech lines are on the same side of the boom. It's a simple three step process to reef. Secure the topping lift. Lower the halyard while you pull on the luff reefing line through the cleat and secure both. Then pull the leech reefing line through the cleat and secure. Since the lines are already run through the cleat you don't need to hunt for anything plus you have the turning bite to do it all one handed. You can come up into the wind and do it in seconds. I'm sure there are many other folks out there with their preferences and I certainly don't pretend that this is the end all solution. Just some food for thought. Joe Seafrog M17 651 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrei Caldararu" <andreic@math.wisc.edu> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:27 PM Subject: M_Boats: How do you reef?

Hello all,

I am wondering how do you go from sailing in light wind to heavy wind, on the water, single handed? Say I have my mainsail up with my 150% genoa, and the wind perks up. I would like to go to a one-point reef in the main, with the 100% jib in the front. What steps do I take?

More importantly perhaps, I seem to have quite a bit of hardware on the boom and mast that I don't know how to use: my boom has a small block at the aft end, a jam cleat about 10 inches forward of that, and another block 10 inches further forward. On the opposite side of the boom, about where the second block is, there is also an eye mounted. On the mast, below where the gooseneck enters, are two jam cleats. The sail has got three reeefing points (I assume that's what they are: lines that come out of the sail on both sides of it) in a line about 10 inches above the foot of the sail. How do I make use of all this?

In the past, if the wind was blowing hard when I left the dock, I put up my 100% jib, and I reefed the main by doing the following: I ran the cunningham line through the second eye in the luff of the mainsail, ran it through one of the jam cleats on the mast, and put a figure 8 knot in it. Then I tied the lines from the reefing points around the boom, and finally I ran the outhaul through the eye and the block on the mast, jury rigging something that did not seem right. How does one do it properly, and what knots are to be used? Finally, even in light winds, how does one attach the outhaul (I assume I somehow should use the block at the end of the boom).

Thanks,

Andrei.

_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!