Reef hooks

[UNCIVILIZED]

Note that to prolong it's life, it's best to avoid point loading Spectra/Dyneema over too small a radius. Something which has been covered at length on here before, with some excellent stuff done on the topic by Evan Starzinger. And if you want to have a pretty "lashing" you can have one sewn from Spectra, Nylon, or Dacron webbing. Though obviously Spectra will live longer due to it's strength, chafe & UV resistance.

Also, you can hang low friction or stainless steel rings from each tack & clew cringle in a manner akin to clew reefing blocks as sold by Antal reef blocks-antal Or on big boats use these blocks, or other small high load ones so that the friction on the lines is greatly reduced. Which both makes reefing easier, & lends to longer lived reefing lines.

One other trick is to use short, replacable Spectra pendants for the part of the reefing line which goes the sail's cringles when the lines are snugged down to their final length. These pendants get connected to the reefing lines proper, & thus take the brunt of the wear when the sail's reefed. And are a lot cheaper & easier to replace than full length reefing lines.


Note that as with halyards, it's wise to have a reeving or eye splice in the end of each reefing line, so that it's easy to install them in a boom which has internally led reefing lines. These save loads of time when leading halyards to, & make it a 3 min. job (literally) to change out halyards for inspection or replacement. It's kind of bad form not to have them really. And once you try them you'll never go back. There are both how to instructions for the splice, below. As well as tips on how to re-string halyards & lines in the boom.

Reeving Eye Splice, a How-To --> http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...t.do?docId=926

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2234681

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1662280

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1677315

[Panope]

Another idea:

Soft shackles, permanently lashed to my gooseneck have worked out pretty good.

They are strong, secure, and simple, but sometimes can be high effort to engage.

The plan is re-make with shackles that are exactly twice as long, thus being able to 'double', and gain the mechanical advantage needed to easily draw the cringle up close, by hand.