Vertical Reefing

[Spinnaker55]

Sorry,

I have been gone for awhile, working my butt off, got fired, then rehired, long story, and toyed with the idea of buying a boat, but I keep coming back to the CS-17 sailplan. So I am skipping the morning starbucks, and scraping money together to start building this spring. My question is has anyone put vertical reefing on their CS-17. I really like the idea of luff sails, instead of lacing or putting sailtrack on. but I will be doing some lake michigan sailing, and would like to be able to reef vice moving the masts as I will be sailing alone most of the time. I think vertical instead of slab reefing would give me the best of both and I wouldn't have to wrap the sail around the mast.

[Charlie Jones]

worked for many years on the old working boats. Don't see why it wouldn't work today. You might find it hard to get a sailmaker who agreed to do it AND /OR understood it even.

In fact, it just might be the easiest way to reef a sprit boom for all I know.

I THINK the Sharpie Book, by Parker goes into a bit of detail on that. If not, I suspect Bolger has written something on it. I think Chapelle may have something in "American Small Sailing craft". Plus, you could go to Duckworks and ask there- they do lots of older style boats and have people who may be able to assist with info.

[Rob Blackburn]

We did the luff sails and did vertical roller reefing.

http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum89.html

The little clam cleat behind each mast is used to stop the rig rotating against the wind of the sail. The hole in the sail about 30% back from the luff pocket is used to tie off the snotter. The sail does not set as well obviously but at that point you don't care really. In my humble opinion the best reef is to move the mast. I love the boat with only one mast going as it is sooooo stable and relaxed.

In our 20 by yourself, two sails in any sort of breeze is too much power for comfortable sailing. Simply move the mast and away you go. Another adult on board and it stiffens dramatically.

Rob

[Designer]

I have never been keen on the vertical reefing as used by the old timers because of the extra windage that the bunched sail makes when brailed to the mast. The spritsails that sail out of the NC Maritime Museum carry a topsail above their four sided mainsail in light weather. The topsail is laced to a vertical spar that that hoists above the mast and sheets to the top of the sprit. To brail the topsail, they ease the topsail sheet and pull on the brailing line. In theory it works well but in practice the wind opens up the sail between the brailing line and makes perfect wind scoops which creates enormous drag.

Rob, how do you attach the line to the mast that prevents the mast from unwinding?

[Rob Blackburn]

On my first masts I simply drilled a hole and put the rope through before I glued the bottom plug in and then left it wrapped around the mast. This irritated me badly as it was always in the way.

Plan B is to simply tie it to the horn cleat that I use for the downhaul and wrap it back around about 6 times until it gets towards the bottom and then through the clam cleat.

The other idea I had was to drill the hole in the new masts and put a rope in with a sister clip or a bowline loop poking out on a 2cm tail to keep it out of the way. But, in reality the nature of our sailing is such that your original advice rings loud that if you put the mizzen in the middle hole, you can take on most things.

It definitely worked but you end up with the same situation as the mizzen alone don't you? ie less sail and a balanced boat.

We have also just put the main away quite often and sailed with mizzen alone in the back hole. This is fine up to 90 deg to the wind I reckon so if it is nasty you tend to run or reach for safety anyway.

Rob

ps. how is the election affecting all you guys? If you are like me you want it over.

[Designer]

What election? If your'e tired of it. imagine what it is like over here. At least it will be over after today and then we can look forward to the lawyers and the endless dissecting of the whole mess.

[John Yow]

Ray, I was looking at the pictures of your boat, which I greatly admire, and am wondering about how you mounted you outboard. I have the same brand with 3.5 hp, but since it is a short shaft, I have been worried the lower section not being in the water enough. Any problem with yours?

Thanks,

John CS17 #102

[Rob Blackburn]

John, asked "Ray" about his outboard mount. I assume you meant Rob so here are some shots of mine this morning.

The black rubber pad stains the paint but it comes off with a bit of Jiff which I have not done yet. There would be a better material somewhere but I have not got onto that.

http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum90.html

Works well for me as I could not stand the thought of a big clunky bracket.

Rob

[Faver]

Hi everybody

I have some questions about this topic. I apologize but english is not my mother tongue so I often have doubts about what I read!! If I understood correctly, this "vertical reefing" is rolling the sail up by rotating the mast isn't it?

Rob suggests to reef by removing the main, is it meant to physically pull out the mast from the hole? If so it sounds a bit dangerous, kind a Superman job in bad weather! Am I mistaking?

What's the most common way to reef larger boat i.e CS20? If I got what vertical reefing is, it sound pretty comfortable indeed. Why so few people use this way? What are drawbacks? Graham's issue about bunched sails make sense but in gust you probably don't mind it too much. I am not experienced at all so in my practice reefing occurred only as training and not as real sailing need so I always think about it as an emergency manoeuver is that the real world?

ciao Fabio