You'll often find that sailing reefed is as fast as sailing with all your sails out, because the boat is in control and spends less time with the rail buried, rounding up, and sailing all over as you fight the rudder to keep the boat straight. Without that nice headsail shape, you may not point as high. The major performance impact is on upwind sailing. When you need to reef there's usually enough wind to keep the boat moving, even with a suboptimal shape that's harder to trim. Sails are cut to be flown full, but shortening sail can impact the efficiency. One downside to this is that you often lose some sail shape. You are reefing so you can keep sailing, but with more control and less power in the rig. This lowers the forces on the boat, reduces heeling, and restores control to the helm and sail controls in overpowering conditions. The aim of reefing is to reduce the sail area that you expose to the wind. Once you've mastered the skill you'll know when it's time, and you'll know when it's faster and more in control to reduce sail. You don't want heavy wind to sneak up on you.Ī reefed boat will sail well with a balanced helm, so get in the habit of reefing when you feel you're fighting the boat and the wind. Situational awareness when you are sailing into big breeze is critical. Storm/dark clouds on the horizon, especially in the direction you're sailing.Out of control feeling to the boat that you can't ease by de-powering the sails.Sustained increase in wind speed, especially with large, powerful gusts.Specific signs that it may be time to reef: You'll get faster as you do it more often, but when you're learning it's better to get an early start. While you work, the wind may continue to build as conditions deteriorate, so the longer you wait the harder it may be to reef. Reefing early when you're learning is smart because it takes time, especially if you have to leave the cockpit to do it. If you are uncomfortable with what you see happening on the water, reef the sails. After all, you can always shake out the reef if conditions don't continue to deteriorate. Our rule for when to reef was when someone asks "do you think we should reef?" Meaning the first time the weather and wind build enough to give us some discomfort about the developing conditions, it was time to reef.īecause we had furling main and headsails, reefing was quick and easy for us so we reefed early. It's not just a survival skill for extreme conditions, it's a skill that lets you sail better in heavy wind. Also know that reefing is a normal strategy for sailing. An important part of how to reef is knowing when to reef.
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