BRS Reefing

[DISTELTK]

I have a BRS 15.  I have no means to reef except to drop one mast and move the other to the center mount.  I am old and not in great physical shape.  So this type of activity is out unless I do it on the trailer before sailing.  I sail on inland lakes where wind variations during the day are sometimes big.

How can I reef without adding sail track?

With the sprit I cant roll the sail on the mast.

Thanx  Tom D. 

[wkisting]

How are your sails set up? Sleeves? Laced on? Sail track?

If you have sleeves, you can roll up some of the sail around the mast to reduce sail area (vertical reefing), but then you need a way to "lock" the masts so they won't rotate (i.e., so the sails stay rolled/reefed). You also need to have a small loop sewn onto the sail so there is a place to reattach the snotter for the sprit after rolling the sail around the mast.

If you have laced or sail track, you can have a set of reef points sewn into each sail about 18" up from the foot... then you lower the sails, raise the sprit to the new attachment points, and tie up the excess sail along the bottom (horizontal reefing), effectively eliminating the bottom 18" swath of sail area. (That's how our CS20 is configured).

[Guest wwbaginski]

Tom, here's Jim Michalak summary:

http://members.fortunecity.com/duckworks/1999/0701/Index.htm

[Randy Jones]

Tom,

I have a CS17 with laced sails and one set of reef points set up similar to the article reference above.  It took some practice to get comfortable reefing out on the water, but I'm compentent at it now and glad that I didn't convert to sail track.   

[ricknriver]

I'm literally in the same boat as Tom D with BRS15 #51 and appreciate the info.  Has anyone tried Jim Michalak's vertical reefing system shown on his site referenced? Like the fact that you don't have to shift the sprit, just let it run a bit ahead of the mast. Tks, Rick

[Scott Dufour]

I've been wondering the same thing about Jim Machalak's jiffy reefing- I'll post the question under a new topic so I don't hyjack this one...