Reef hooks

[cpt_757]

Previous owner of my boat who cut reef hooks off from gooseneck/ toggle assembly .
Is there any alternative to installing reef hooks other than replacing with new gooseneck/ toggle assembly with reef hooks.
Original one has welded hooks.
Any suggestion please!

[sck5]

In the short run (or even the long run) you can use pieces of line to tie the tack down to the boom

[cpt_757]

That is an idea, how about using Cunningham as reef hook?
Is it possible?

[cal40john]

It's possible, previous owner did this to my boat. Works ok so far. Issue is it doesn't provide any forward pull, so one or two cars (or slugs) are taking all the horizontal load. Some people say that this will fail. I would tie a line around the mast through the reefing cringle to take the load if I were going into long term severe storm.

Don't think it would work well where bolt rope on sail goes into mast web.

[Jim Cate]

without seeing the specific gooseneck, it's hard to say, but I'd think that a Dyneema lashing with some sort of s/s hook or snap shackle could make a useful tack attachment.

Jim

[cpt_757]

I tried to past a picture but did not work. I will try with laptop.
Thank you,

[cal40john]

The diagram in this link is what I saw on all the boats I sailed until I started hanging out with racers. They had hooks and said the hook was faster to reef.

How to Reef the Main

[cpt_757]

You mean hooks on goose neck assenbry?

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by cpt_757

You mean hooks on goose neck assenbry?

Yep, never saw a hook on the gooseneck or anywhere for the first couple of years I sailed. Just eyestraps, lines, and cleats.

[cpt_757]

My hooks were cut off from there,,,

[roverhi]

You need to have some tension towards the mast at the tack reef point. Without that all the aft tension from the clew reefing line will be trying to pull the sail slugs off the mast/sail. If the Cunningham only pulls down, it will not counter act that aft pull on the slugs.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Snap hooks (stainless carabiners) on short Spectra strops are definitely an option. Another is to run a line through each tack cringle, from one side of the spar to the other, near the gooseneck. With the lines then either going through a set of stoppers on the mast, or being led down the spar & back to the cockpit, after going through a low friction ring near the gooseneck which optimizes their angle of pull through the tack cringles.

Thus with either option, you can set up the lines & hardware for each reef so that the line is taking both a horizontal & vertical load on the cringle. Pretty much eliminating any pull on sail slides or cars. See the picture in cal40john's link.

Edit: The primary reason to use snap hooks instead of traditional reefing hooks is so that they don't fall out of the sail's tack cringles, or the rings hanging from the tack cringles on some sails.
Normally you want to have a ring hanging from both sides of each of the sail's tack cringles if you're going this route. And the rings can be connected to one another using a lashing of the proper length.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

without seeing the specific gooseneck, it's hard to say, but I'd think that a Dyneema lashing with some sort of s/s hook or snap shackle could make a useful tack attachment.

Jim

That's exactly what I have. Snap shackle and dyneema loops attached to heavy pad eyes on either side of the mast at the same height as the gooseneck. Works fine for me.

[Training Wheels]

I've got essentially the same set up, except I run the the strop from the gooseneck to a cleat I put on the mast. I just run the strop through the reef point and over the cleat.

[cpt_757]

I will do that, better than replacing tack assby.
Thank you very much,