![]() It may help to pull the luff down as you're easing the halyard.Ĥ. Keeping a single wrap around a winch, ease the main halyard to lower the tack of the sail to your reef point. Release the mainsheet completely and ease the boom vang.ģ. As you turn the boat into the wind, throttle your engine down until you have just enough forward motion to maintain control, keeping the boat head to wind.Ģ. Sailing into a thunderstorm or high winds with new crew is not the time for an introductory lesson. If reefing lines are lead back to the cockpit, make sure you identify each line, and what it does.ĭiscuss the reefing process with your crew at the dock. If your boat doesn't have these lines, locate the gear that will allow you to fasten the luff cringle to the boat - it could be a hook, horn, or another device. You'll use these to tighten up the sail once it's been lowered. Note the luff reefing line, just above the tack of the main, threaded through the luff reef cringle, and the clew reefing line, threaded through the clew reef cringle. Make sure to check what kind of reefing system your boat has at the dock before heading out. Your boat could also have a single line reefing system, in which the tack and clew are attached to the same line, coming down together when you trim in from the cockpit. While some boats have an in-mast furling system - a continuous loop system that can be furled from cockpit into the mast - other designs will be less sophisticated. Not just the temps and rain forecast keep an ear out for the wind forecast. Since you'll need to reef the sail while heading upwind, it's important not to underestimate its power. Remember, “apparent wind” feels much lighter when sailing downwind. Don't ignore your instincts - the moment it occurs to you to reef the main is usually the right time to do it. During such times you'll likely need to decrease the area of the mainsail - known as “reefing” - in order to maintain control of the boat. One minute you'll be cruising along smoothly and the next, your sails are flapping wildly while the crew searches below decks for harnesses and life jackets. The deities of wind are a changeable bunch.
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