Single line reefing
Wasa 55 leans over easily, so that reefing from the cockpit is a practical tool for anyone who is underway with small crew or alone. A single line reef boom as an add-on is not exactly cheap, so that I decided to modify my original Selden boom to accommodate a Sparcraft type reefing system:
I removed the reef line sheaves and sheet clutches from the gooseneck.
Two holes were drilled into the upper side of the goose neck, placed above the mast side of the sheaves for the reef lines. I carefully smoothened and rounded the holes so that they will not cut into the sheets that pass through there
The sheaves were put back in place, and the reef lines now run underneath the sheaves and up through the new holes to the reef earrings at the luff of the main sail, where a block is attached to each ring
From there the line runs down, through a guide ring at the gooseneck (a Selden piece) and down to the blocks at the mast foot and then to the cockpit.
The local sail maker relocated the original luff reef earrings back some 15...20 cm's, so as to not to have the reef pull on the sail luff sliders.
The experiences from a couple of summers are pretty good:
Upside:
- The reef can now be made completely from the cockpit, even without going fully up into the wind for reefing.
- Adding and removing the reef is a breeze.
Downside:
- Reef lines hanging in the sail and disturbing the flow there
- Lots of rope spaghetti on the cockpit floor when reefing
- The sail cannot be made flat enough; some tuning of the set-up is still needed
