Ok my junkie friends, here's one that's got me fairly stumped at the moment.
When my sails are full or nearly so, they take on a lovely twist off the wind that seems to make them nicely stable and ridiculously fast in light air.
As soon as I pop a couple reefs in, though, the set goes all to hell and they get a nasty hook in the lower panels, with the top ones blowing off. Here are some photos to give you the idea:
http://gallery.studiodc.org/v/useralbums/dc/Princess/misc/
The topping lifts are set up to hold the boom at the right angle when the sail is furled and they relatively closely match the angle of each batten within 5-10 degrees or so. However, the sail is cut a bit too long for the mast (actually I think the mast is set a bit further in the boat than planned) so the boom is a bit too low when the whole sail is hoisted. I can't recut the sail now (will do over the winter) so figured I would just try raising the lowest panel and lashing it to the boom for now, effectively tucking a permanent reef in upwards instead of downwards and allowing me to set the boom exactly in line with the batten angle.
But that still doesn't explain the horrible "hook".
Can anyone help me figure this out?
Thank you!