Hi all,

I'm interested in peoples opinion of various single line reefing systems.

At the moment my system incorporates four movements if you dis-regard vang and topping lift.

First release main halyard tension
Second pull down reefing tack to desired position
Third pull reefing clew into proper position
Fourth re-tension main halyard.

I know there are other adjustments, but I am just talking about the actual reefing of the sail.

What I would like to know what simple and effective means others use to make this a simpler task. Particularly for single or short handed sailing.

I am interested in trying this system as it looks about as basic as you can get.

I have twin reefing lines for a 3 reef main. The only downside with a single line system is friction [and a lot of rope in the cockpit]

With a twin rope system the tack is reefed first. With a single reef system tack and clew should come down the same time and you will need a winch. Twin rope reefing you just need a winch for the clew usually.

Hi Ramona,
I have twin line at the moment.
I had planned to put small blocks at the tack and clew to help cut some of the friction down if I went to a single line system.
While I have three reef points I would normally just set up the bottom two. If I need a third reef I would probably dump the main and rely on headsail alone.
Since I only coastal sail I shouldn't be out in anything that requires three reefs.

I have exactly what you've shown. I have an electric winch - as mentioned, there is a lot of line to deal with, and doing it manually would be tedious. Initially there was a lot of friction, but I've put blocks at the luff cringles and that helped a lot.

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QLDCruiser said..
I have exactly what you've shown. I have an electric winch - as mentioned, there is a lot of line to deal with, and doing it manually would be tedious. Initially there was a lot of friction, but I've put blocks at the luff cringles and that helped a lot.

Hey QC, how many reefing points on your main do you have this set up, installed.

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Franrick said..
Hi Ramona,
I have twin line at the moment.
I had planned to put small blocks at the tack and clew to help cut some of the friction down if I went to a single line system.
While I have three reef points I would normally just set up the bottom two. If I need a third reef I would probably dump the main and rely on headsail alone.
Since I only coastal sail I shouldn't be out in anything that requires three reefs.

Straight after I wrote that this morning I went for a blast up the coast. Only gone a mile and I had to drop in a reef! Not sure how you can fit blocks to the tack and clew and have the same angles as in the diagram above. I guess if you can put up with the ropes coming down one side of the sail it would work OK. I don't think the friction is from the cringles so much as its the turning blocks. The angle to the turning blocks on the boom is fairly critical in flattening the sail as you reef.

I have had to drop down to a 3rd reef coastal sailing, winter Westerlies. I think for my boat the last sail now will be a third reef in the main with the headsail furled. After that bare poles.

I saw a few pics and diagrams with small blocks attached to the tack and clew.
I haven't tried it but the reports suggested that it would reduce friction as there is quite a bit in the diagram I posted.
I have sheet winches in my cockpit with all lines leading to the cockpit.
I'm happy enough with what I have but single line would be a bit easier/quicker I am thinking.

QldCruiser,
I have been looking at this system for quite a few years now.
It seems simple and straight forward but have never found someone who used it.

As a guide , we raced a mates yacht the other week . Old ORC half tonner masthead rig . 25-30 knts consistent, with heavier gusts .


We started with two reefs and #3 . The boat was perfectly balanced while hard on the breeze . When running off a touch , she had a fair bit of helm on .

We thought we could shake a reef out to catch up a bit but , no way..... to much weather helm with one reef and #3 .



As far as single line reefing goes , it would be nice to have , but I have to hook mine down at the mast , then use the line for the end of the boom .

I would prefer to put my reef in manually.
Set the outhaul and reef knot a nice 2 meter spectra onto the boom doubled up through the boom bag and horn the head and hoist. I only have one line controlling the outhaul.
As you can see on iceberg with the number 1 reef in the boom was like 12foot high but still worked a treat cause the sail was so flat like a board! I was reefing like this before I skippered this one so nothing new just bigger,runners and passengers!

Hi, I have same setup for two reefs with one exception : tack blocks are mounted on the mast, not on the boom as per drawing.
to avoid friction main is lowered below reef level and reef line puled touth, then main rised. I m reefing and dereefing from cockpit, no deck walking.
hailyard and refing 1 and 2 are 8 mm double bride, ticker will be more comfy on hands but with increased friction, thinner with less friction willbe uncomfy for hands. I do not use winch or other power multyplaying device.

I never thought of putting the blocks on the mast.

Something else to think about.

All my reefing is done from the cockpit and I have two, two speed winches in front of me. The two line reefing method has the advantage of making final adjustments to the luff tension after the reef is completed. The sail is lowered till the new tack is about 300mm above the boom and the halyard is secured. Then the luff is tensioned just like you are using a Cunningham eye. Once this is done the clew is hauled out with the winch and because of the layout of the turning blocks on the boom the sail is flattened. By the time you get down to the 3rd reef the sail is very flat!

The tack lines come down to turning blocks on the mast to give the correct angles for foot tension. The layout was installed by the previous owners, I merely benefit from their ocean racing experiences.

I normally just keep sailing with the windvane when reefing or shaking out a reef.

I've used a stainless ring and soft shackle to secure some cheap blocks, so no trip to the sailmaker is involved. I had thought about doing the same thing for the leech cringles, but was intending to spend more money on lightweight blocks. However the extra step has turned out to be unnecessary. I'll post a pic when I'm somewhere with better bandwidth.

Crusoe, I have 2 reefs. I'm not sure about setting it up for 3 reefs - there would be a lot of hardware involved. I think most people with a 3-reef main would set this up with 2 of the reef positions depending on circumstances.

Franrick, this single-line system is pretty common on beneteaus and jenneaus.

It will be good to see some pictures QC when you get better bandwidth. A better reefing system is on the wish list and doing it from the cockpit would be nice. I would have to say that the Third Reef is usually the most fun (excitement) to put in and this is where I would like to have an easy system for doing do. But the thought of having all those ropes flogging around day in day out just waiting for when the 3rd reef is required, does not appeal.

Hi Qld,

My main has three reef points but I only set up for two.

My reasons are simple, I have fifty odd horsepower in a thirty one foot boat. My boat sails well on the headsail alone. If you look at my profile pic closely you will see that I am sailing along very nicely on a fourty percent furled up headsail.

With the sailing I do I doubt very much that I would be out in conditions were a third reef is warranted. If that was the case I would simply turn around and run downwind. Where I live I wouldn't have to go in the opposite direction for to long before I found somewhere to shelter.

Some really good stuff to think about in this thread. Thanks to all posters.

I have a single-line reefing system just like Franrick describes and love it. The reefing line comes back to an electric winch at the helm. It's easy peasy to reef, there's no need to go to the mast, and it's very doable even when single handed.

I have two reefs, deep and bloody deep. If you aren't racing you don't need small adjustments in sail area. I put one reef in over 15-20 kts and two over 25-30. After that drop the main and run on the heady.
I do like the single line reefing from the cockpit but as my reefing lines run inside the boom I'm not sure how I could achieve it. I would need a block on the mast below the boom and then run the rope up through the reefing cringle. I doubt it would work effectively but will look at all ideas.

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scruzin said..
I have a single-line reefing system just like Franrick describes and love it. The reefing line comes back to an electric winch at the helm. It's easy peasy to reef, there's no need to go to the mast, and it's very doable even when single handed.

Correction: I didn't look closely enough at the diagram. My single-line reefing setup is slightly different. The reefing line runs inside the boom and there is a sliding block, which runs the length of the boom.

MB. If you are running before the wind and you realise it's suddenly blowing too much and you need to drop the mainsail,
how do you do that with a sail full of wind at right angles to the boat.???

The system on my 28 is a mix.

I have three reefs to work with and mostly l sail alone.
I engage the tiller pilot to bring the yacht into position for reefing.
Put the kettle on.

I use the cunningham hook to attach the appropriate reef cringle which to do l have to get to the mast. This does not seem to cause a problem sitting on the top of the cabin, sliding forward a bit as l am tall and a boat is only a 28.

The boom has a grove on top for a main with foot attached though l have a loose footed main!
The end of the boom has three sheaves built in. The middle one is the outhaul and the two others are for the reef lines. I use only one of them for a single reefing line.
I have two sliders in the groove on the boom, The rear one is for normal conditions with outhaul and leech cringle attached, The front one is for reefing, BUT my outhaul is attached to the rear slider by a hook for easy removal. The second - reefing - slider has a loop on the back to hook on the detachable outhaul-hook and on the front a small but strong turning block for the reefing line which is 8mm.
The boom has a winch and the lines from the end of the boom run inside the boom up to their exit slit mid way on the side of the starboard side of it.

The reefing line has a hook attached to the end and is reeved via the turning block on the slider and the sheave at the end of the boom - running inside of it - to the exit slit on the side of the boom.
When l am reefing l drop the main to the appropriate reefing height - the halyard is marked - and engage the cunningham hook at the mast. On the way back to the cockpit l undo the outhaul on the boom and attach the hook at the end of the reef line to the required reef cringle.
Back at the cockpit after tightening the halyard and cunningham which is led back to the cockpit - where l have two self tailing winches - l undo the outhaul-hook from the rear slider and attach it to the new outhaul point on the second, reefing slider. Then l pull the reef line tight sitting on the top of the companion way tightening the outhaul and the reef line on the boom winch. After fine tuning the set up with halyard cum cunningham tension reef line and outhaul and tie up the bunt with occy straps if needed.
Then, it is coffee time.

In the mean time the tiller pilot is taking care of the rest.

I am aware of some faults in this system, that l have to leave the cockpit to reef, that l have a higher reef compared to a system which is using sheaves on a slider on the side of the boom and l have to shift the outhaul. In case of a two reef system l would not bother but having the third reef ready without major surgery and no snake pit in the cockpit is a good thing to have.
When worked to perfection it is quick and quite reliable.

I guess one of the points here is that no two boats are the same. Even identical hulls can behave differently with different rigs and different skippers.
As an example,
Yesterday I attempted to leave Breakwater Marina in Townsville in a strong southerly wind.
A strong southerly is directly on my starboard beam and I am in a marina berth, tied to port.
With consideration to the wind I thought I would warp out with a line from my port stern to the end of my berth. In normal circumstances this would be OK.
When I reversed out of the pen all was good until my bow cleared the pen and then the wind just took hold of the bow and blew it to port.
As I still had the warp attached I applied reverse thrust to bring my bow around, this all went well until I ran out of warp and the wind then again pushed my bow to port.
By now I was broadside to the wind in a space almost no bigger that my length.
The wind kept pushing my bow to port and I ended up with my stern to the wind and my bow facing in the wrong direction.
I thought I might be lucky enough (read, no other options here) to continue out of the marina row stern first. ENTER prop walk, yes, my stern then went to port and exasperated my problems.
At this point I decided that since it was far easier to get back into my berth than attempt anything else that my day on the water was over and I then returned to my berth.
Sailing people are great and a few regulars at the marina saw what was going on and were quick to take my lines.
Perhaps I could have continued and got out of the marina unscathed, perhaps not, but I decided to call it a day.
My point is, that my first boat was an Endeavout 26. It reversed like a car. Where you pointed it, it went, forward or reverse.
My current boat is a heavy and very comfortable cruiser but prop walk is probably it's biggest drawback.
I could back the Endeavour into a berth like it had two engines, my Roberts takes a bit of planning to do anything at all in reverse.
ALL of our boats are a little different from each other, what works on one may not be quite as suitable on the other.
That's what makes this forum good, plenty of scope to look at alternatives.

My Walker is not easy either I find it harder with out masts and you have to think long before react .. I reveres into my pier finger and with a breeze she like to do her own thing but not like one of my neighbors have not hit any one yet

I thought this thread was about single line reefing...

In response to a post above - to run a third reef with just two reefing lines, you can have a loop of vb cord running from the 3rd reef's eye to the 2nd reef's eye. This loop should have a small eyelet in it.

When you have the second reef in and need the third, you grab the line for the first reef, pass it through the boom block for the third reef, and then poke it through the eye in the vb cord. I think you make sure you have enough of a tail in the vb cord to throw a couple of half hitches around the reefing line to prevent snagging.

You then pull the vb cord around until the reefing line goes through the reefing eye and back down, secure it and start reefing. Obviously you have to be able to reach the boom! It works pretty well as it avoids you having a whole bunch of rarely-used spagehetti bouncing around the main. The main thing is that you don't need to pull the halyard back up even if you haven't got around to marking the halyard, since it's easy to adjust the position of the reefing eye accurately.

On my own boat I use the cunningham for the tack reef, like Sirgallivant - it's already there so you need one less line. The cunno normally also has lots of purchases so you can pull it in by hand on my boat (also a 28). Similarly, instead of a special boom topping lift, you just clip the spinnaker pole topping lift onto the boom when reefing - mine is there permanently as I'm not racing at the moment.

You could easily reserve the cunno for the 3rd reef and have the first two rigged with single-line systems, which work pretty well with a bit of fiddling.

I have a single reefing for 2 reefs on a seldon boom and use a conventional method for the 3rd. The single line reefing works great but I have only ever put the 3rd reef at the marina.

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samsturdy said...


MB. If you are running before the wind and you realise it's suddenly blowing too much and you need to drop the mainsail,
how do you do that with a sail full of wind at right angles to the boat.???

Bring her up onto the normal reefing course and drop it. That is, get her sailing on the heady pretty high on the wind with the main sheet eased enough to have the main luffing.

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Chris 249 said..
In response to a post above - to run a third reef with just two reefing lines, you can have a loop of vb cord running from the 3rd reef's eye to the 2nd reef's eye. This loop should have a small eyelet in it.

When you have the second reef in and need the third, you grab the line for the first reef, pass it through the boom block for the third reef, and then poke it through the eye in the vb cord. I think you make sure you have enough of a tail in the vb cord to throw a couple of half hitches around the reefing line to prevent snagging.

You then pull the vb cord around until the reefing line goes through the reefing eye and back down, secure it and start reefing. Obviously you have to be able to reach the boom! It works pretty well as it avoids you having a whole bunch of rarely-used spagehetti bouncing around the main. The main thing is that you don't need to pull the halyard back up even if you haven't got around to marking the halyard, since it's easy to adjust the position of the reefing eye accurately.

On my own boat I use the cunningham for the tack reef, like Sirgallivant - it's already there so you need one less line. The cunno normally also has lots of purchases so you can pull it in by hand on my boat (also a 28). Similarly, instead of a special boom topping lift, you just clip the spinnaker pole topping lift onto the boom when reefing - mine is there permanently as I'm not racing at the moment.

You could easily reserve the cunno for the 3rd reef and have the first two rigged with single-line systems, which work pretty well with a bit of fiddling.

Chris this sounds fine if your wanting a 3rd reef on a nice day. Generally a third reef is required when conditions are unpleasant and it's best not to leave the cockpit at all. Most people would probably be close hauled while reefing and the end of the boom would be well clear of the side of the boat, wandering up to the mast is probably not a good idea.

In fresh conditions when you generally reef you also need a lot more Luff tension. With fully battened mains and mast slides you may not get enough tension with the main halyard and a winch alone. By leaving the new cringle 300mm or so above the boom as you reef, this tension can be gained by winching down the new tack like you would a cunningham eye. This brings the drive back forward and opens up the leech.

To me the biggest downfall with single line reefing is the tension on the luff and foot of the sail can not be varied.

On my vessel with a full main I haul the main up, mostly by hand and the last bit I use the winch. I then have to tension the luff to suit the breeze with the Cunningham eye. I still have some room at the top of the mast track to pull the sail up but friction on the slides in the top half prevent this. The bottom half however comes down easily with the Cunningham eye and the correct sail shape is obtained. The same happens when I reef, the bottom section of the sail comes down easier than hauling up on the halyard.

The other point is time. If I have not reefed for a a few weeks it probably takes 2 minutes for the whole evolution. If I have been more regular it takes less than a minute. This is while sailing solo.

Well...

" To me the biggest downfall with single line reefing is the tension on the luff and foot of the sail can not be varied. "

With the hook and single line system l am using - with it's disadvantages of going forward, which l do on my back side or on my knees with plenty of space under the boom to duck under in case of need - l have the full adjustability of all the functions involved. Halyard, cunningham, outhaul and reef cringle down-haul as well. As a matter of fact this system has an added adjustability as l shift my outhaul's position, which other systems do not.
There is no spaghetti at all as the single reefing line is stoved hooked to the boom with no tail as it is reeved into the boom and only appears on the side of it further ahead. The cunningham is going to the rope clutch on starboard next to the halyard and boom wang and the outhaul is on duty doing it's normal work.
It is a non intrusive set up which needs very little fiddling. No knots to be tied or ropes to fiddle with at all.

As far as the main's track is concerned it's luck of smooth operation is often owed to the lack of fresh lubrication. Here l emphasize the word 'fresh' as dry lubricants on mast tracks do not last forever and need constant re-application.
Perhaps, if one does not have the urge to climb the mast to lubricate, a small piece of foam saturated with lubricant and placed into the mast tack above the top slider before raising the main will go a long way of solving the problem.
It is total loss system as one is never going to be able to recover the foam piece but l live in hope, that the God of Harbour cleanliness Kiernan is going to forgive us.

This is how my sail maker attached a pulley to the luff.