Chafe at reefing cringle

[steve77]

We have slab reefing, with dogbones at the luff which fit onto a reefing hook at the gooseneck and cringles in the leech. When reefing, the line runs from the end of the boom, through the cringle, and down to the mast. I am getting a lot of chafe where the line does a 180 degree turn at the cringle. (I am already getting tired of Mr. Spellcheck not liking the word "cringle".)

Anyone have any ideas for how to make this turn without chafing the line or the sail? My reefing lines are 7/16".

I was thinking of a block, but don't like the idea of the weight and chafe on the sail. I thought about a low friction ring and soft shackle, but it's still a 180 turn and I'm not sure how much improvement that would give.

Any suggestions?

Steve

[roverhi]

We sailed nearly 10,000 miles with the main reefed about 1/2 that distance. There was some wear on the clew reefing line but not all that much. Is there a rough spot on the clew cringle or some sharpish object that is causing your chafe issues?? The easiest way to handle chafe is to change the position of the wear point on the line when reefed. Really easy to do if the bitter end is fastened with a bowline. If it's spliced, cut the splice off and tie a knot.

[Jim Cate]

Usually the chafe is due to stretch in the reefing line allowing it to 'saw' back and forth in the cringle. Use of a low stretch line can help with that, and if you use bare Dyneema in the cringle area, it is both strong, very low stretch and very slippery and very chafe resistant. You could use a fairly short bit of the dyneema attached to the body of the reefing line to reduce cost, too.

jim

[Don C L]

A photo would be nice. Little confused about how you are applying the dogbones. Is the dogbone actually in the clew cringle? If I am understanding you, the reef line comes up from the gooseneck on one side (port?) through the cringle (tack) and then to the mast (stbd side)? Where on the mast? At the base? Is it dacron braid? Is the cringle bent at all? How about a reef hook at the gooseneck that the cringle goes over (no reef line)? Something you might consider is a hook on a Cunningham that you can re-task for the reefs... has its limitations though, but no chafe.

[Orion Jim]

I agree with roverhi, you have a cringle issue. I use soft spun double braid for my clew reefing lines and they show no appreciable wear after nine seasons. That includes 3000+ offshore miles.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Clarification as to how your reefing setup is configured would allow for better feedback. Since the current description leaves it sounding almost as if you have a single line system. Which I'm guessing is not the case. Nor is it clear where the dogbones are, & why.

BTW, there are plenty of blocks that'll work in this application that weigh about 1/2lb. And some get sewn on with webbing, so that there's little chafe, like Antal's clew blocks reef blocks-antal
Or go to a Harken Loop Block that mounts with Spectra lashings or Loops Harken
And of course low friction rings are yet lighter & lower chafe.

You might also look into reefing locks for the clew, which are akin to halyard locks, & thus are single line, with even less chafe potential.

On the tack, low friction rings are again an option. Ditto on stainless rings, or Spectra loops, both of which get secured near the gooseneck via stainless snap hooks.

Also, look at having chafe patches to the sail. And inquire as to whether Spectra ones are an option. As I've seen ones made of it both glued on, & sewn on. Though Dacron works, & is easily replaceable. Plus there are fancier, more durable, pricier fabrics.

[steve77]

Okay, forgive me if I mess up some nomenclature here, but I will try to clarify our reefing setup.

There are two cringles per reef - one at the mast (luff) and one at the leech. The dogbones are in the cringles at the mast. They are long enough to allow the dogbone ring to attach to the reefing hook at the gooseneck. I need these because of the bulk of the reefed portion of the sail.

They have nothing to do with my reefing lines or the point of chafe.

The line is 7/16 New England Ropes Sta-Set dacron polyester braid.

I'll take a look at the cringle and see what I come up with. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Steve

[UNCIVILIZED]

If you do add hardware such as blocks to your clew reefs, you can add anti-chafe "socks" to them. Made from leather, sometimes neoprene, other types of fabric, or a combination of these. Harken makes them for their runner blocks if you've not seen them before. And they're pretty easy to DIY.
Also there's been a fair bit written about reefing setups lately, if you do a search.

On a boat that size it may be wise to upsize the reefing lines, as they see quite a bit of load. If you stay with Dacron, I'd move to something the same size as a main sheet, based on the sheet's size if the sheet were a single line system.

Odds are your reefing lines are stretching due to the loads on them, when the; boat, boom, & sails move. And movement in the lines is likely chafing the sail. So that larger diameter, & lower stretch lines may help with this. Including switching to Spectra reefing lines, or at least using Spectra pendants/strops in the part of the line which is attached to the boom & passes through the sail.

There's a post about this in another reefing thread of 2-3 days ago. Along with some tips about rigging one's tack reefing lines. And a linked article from Cruising World on configuring one's reefing setup, with pics.

[steve77]

Thanks, all.

Uncivilized - I apologize for blending threads, but I found the other reefing thread I believe you are referring to. The Antal blocks look very interesting, and I was not familiar with them. Thanks!

I'll ponder this a bit and see what I can come up with. It's too breezy to raise the main at the dock here, so it will be a few days before I can hoist it and look things over.

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions.

Steve