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Reefing ketches and schooners

  • 14 Feb 2013 08:20
    Quote
    Reply # 1208459 on 1208011
    Anonymous member
    On our schooner with main:fore areas 460:360, reefing the main 1 panel relieves weather helm when it gets to force 5 or so, and lets us keep the foresail full, on the wind or reaching off. In stronger, we reef them together and stay fairly balanced. So 2 main & 3 fore panels is for gusty or galey.

    (Our first reef is smaller than our second, second smaller than third...)
    (Reefing the main is less often necessary since I moved the rudder aft.)

    Running is pretty much the only time our sails differ by more than a panel, with the main smaller, but I always like to have some main up - enough to head up and stop, tack, pick up Bob...

    (We still haven't tried running with the main pushing and the fore sheeted in.) 

    Cheers,
    Kurt
  • 13 Feb 2013 22:46
    Quote
    Message # 1208011
    Deleted user
    [Webmaster edit: the following posts moved from the 'Mast Database' topic.]

    David Tyler wrote:

    (On a junk ketch) the mizzen gets reefed first, and the main is doing most of the
    driving. There were some occasions when full main and no mizzen
    were used, when I had the wingsail ketch rig on Tystie. The
    situation is more complex with a schooner.

    Annie Hill wrote:

    When I sailed a schooner, the sails were essentially reefed together.

    Brian Kerslake wrote:

    Agree with Annie re schooner, except when running in which case
    we sometimes reefed the main more than the foresail in order to
    keep the foresail full.

    Robert Groves wrote:

    We normally reef both sails at the same time with deeper reefs
    in the fore sail and driving on the mainsail both off and on
    the wind. We have found that doing this makes it easier to
    change direction quickly when we come across UFO's
    (Unidentified Floating Objects) or larger items like container
    ships.
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