In the other thread "camber and induced drag", I've been recently writing about my thoughts to further simplify the rig by removing HK parrels and the THP.
After yesterday, I do need to rethink!
We've been steaming along, dead running, at 7.0 kn for some dozens minutes. That is 1.7 kn above hull speed. It felt well under control, Ilvy behaved as usual. I constantly checked bending of batten #3, but is was fine, I've seen it bend worse. All was good - and fun!
Being close to a windward shore, the sea was perfectly flat. The opposite of what the topic of this thread describes. Approaching a narrow buoyed seaway, we reefed to slow down. The sail came down a bit: the upper battens and yard went down, but the lower ones not so much. The sail "folded" over it's entire height. It was not a bad thing, still able to be sheeted as normal. But still, not properly reefed. I repeat: though we've been fast as h***, there was barely any roll movement in the boat - and no waves. This, combined with a LOT of pressure in the sail, finally illustrated the limits of easy reefing. Normally, the waves and rolling motion of Ilvy would have brought the sail down rather quickly!
We used YHP and THP to bring the sail down to the designated reef: pulling and let go of those two, one by one after each other for several times did the trick. I was glad to still have the THP.!
That was a rather special occasion, and wouldn't have happened if we didn't push Ilvy that far to the limits. Anyways, I am healed now about wishing to omit the THP. To handle that one more line is a compromise I could live with - until someone comes up with a better concept.
Cheers,
Paul