Recently, there’s been a fair bit of comment and questions about whether “one’s reef points are in the right location”. I chimed in to some discussion that has come around to pointing out that the boom may be compromised by overly taut reef lines.
This is very interesting and, I feel, significant stuff. I have been in the habit of (mostly) tying in one (or even both) reefs at the dock if it looks windy, thus avoiding the job out there on the water. It’s way quicker and simpler to shake reefs out then to put them in. But, in the process, as it’s been correctly pointed out to me, I have ended up with a taut reef line running almost 90 degrees (from the poor cheek block) to centre and through the clew cringle and terminating on the other side of the boom. Simply put, I may be pulling both sides of the boom together and risking pulling the cheek block clear off of the boom, as the wind puts pressure on the sail.
Another “but” … The sail looks picture perfect in both reefed positions and both clew reef points sit at roughly the same locations that the reefing hardware is installed on the boom. And yet, I know that the cheek block was not built to feed the line straight ACROSS the boom but somewhat forward at, maybe a 45 degree angle to the clew (putting the clew somewhat further forward and having the sail definitely “looser”, if that makes sense).
So, come Spring, we shall experiment. I have to say that I am less concerned about drawing both sides of the boom to each other. In theory, it could happen, I suppose, but I don’t think it would. These booms are really well-built but I may be mistaken. That said, I jus may tie a floating block around the boom and through the cheek block (purely to position the floating block) and run my reefing line through the floating block, not the cheek block.
I love this group. One can busily discuss one thing and, sho 'nuff, along comes someone else who pokes a big and well-placed hole into a totally different part of the discussion.
Keep it up, folks, only a little more than 3 months to launch.
Ernie A. in Toronto