Reefs and reefing

One of the big things I am looking forward to on this cruise is spending time on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. According to Wikipedia, the Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. It is said to be a beautiful place to sail and dive. I hope to be there around June 2014.

Most people have heard of reefs. They are those hunks of rock or coral that lurk just below the surface of the water waiting to sink unwary boaters. But sailors have another kind of reef that is beneficial. When the wind starts to blow, the normal course of action for a sailor is to reduce the amount of sail that he has up. One way to do that is to lower one or more sails. Another less drastic way to do it is called reefing. Reefing is a process whereby the sail is only partially lowered. That reduces the sail area and the stress on the boat.

 
 







The picture on the left shows Laelia with a full mainsail set.



















If you look closely at the top of the sail in the picture on the right you will see that it no longer goes all the way to the top of the mast. That is because the sail has been reefed. Reefing is also referred to as shortening sail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the picture on the left, you can see a set of strings dangling from the sail. These are used to tie up the portion of the sail that has been lowered.

 

In the picture to the right, you can see the portion of the reefed sail that has been rolled up into a nice neat bundle and tied in place with the strings (called reef points) that you saw in the previous picture.

 

Sounds simple? It is simple doing it at the dock on a day with no wind. The process gets a little more difficult when under sail, the wind is blowing hard and the boat is rolling and pitching. Still, if all goes well, it is a 10 minute job. It pays to spend time at the dock figuring out how to make the process go smoothly and neatly. The alternative is to suffer with trying to figure it out when the wind is blowing hard, etc.

Next week, I will be taking the boat to Alameda to have all the standing rigging (the wires that hold the masts up) replaced. The existing standing rigging is old – possibly more than 15 years old. It doesn’t seem prudent to attempt a circumnavigation with rigging that old. If it breaks half way to Tahiti, no one will be coming out to tow me back to port.

Along with that, I will have the anchor windlass in stalled. That is the piece of gear that helps me pull the anchor up. The anchor weighs 45 lbs and is attached to about 200 lbs of chain. If it is all deployed (not unusual in the Pacific islands) it is way too heavy to be pulled up without some form of mechanical aid. More on this later.