Cruising World - June 2018

june/july 2018

cruisingworld.com

74

down on its own, and even the

reef line on a winch won’t feel

effective. The simplest solu-

tion is for someone to stand at

the mast and pull down on the

luff of the sail. If you can safely

get there in the dark and reach

the sail, this method, being

the simplest, has beauty.

But regardless, you already

thought about this back at

the dock, and you have rigged

some kind of downhaul that

lets you pull down on the sail

from a position where you feel

safe. It can be as simple as a

separate line, tied to the top

luff car, that is led to the base

of the mast, or better yet to

a manual winch either on the

mast, cabin top or at the helm

(to be used as a last resort!).

There are times when even

an athlete at the mast, using a

well-rigged downhaul, won’t

budge the sail. Try bringing

the mainsheet in 2 feet and

try again. No? Alter heading

slightly and try again. Bring in

a couple more feet of sheet.

Double-check the main hal-

yard. No snags? Keep tinkering

with sheet angle and heading,

downhaul and reef-line pres-

sure in tiny increments — but

don’t jibe! Try even moving

the traveler up a foot or two.

Remember, the reef line has to

pull the boom up a bit to meet

the lowering leech cringle, so

changing the sheet geometry

can help.

If all else fails, you might

have to put your downhaul

on the (manual!) winch. Here,

again, all your dock practice

pays off because you need a

good feel for how much friction

is too much. You need to know

if something is about to break.

If you keep tweaking the

sheet and heading in small bites,

and you don’t break something,

the sail will fi nally move down

an inch or two, and that’s all you

need, a start. From there you

can keep inching it down.

When you have the reef

point locked down, give the

autopilot a break. Steer the

boat to see if it’s easier and

better balanced with less sail.

If you still have sea room in

your practice space, take a

break, open the lunch bag, re-

view your checklist and then

practice reefi ng the jib. You’ll

fi nd challenges there too in big

wind, even though it rolls up.

PRACTICE MAKES

PERFECT

Every boat and every sea condi-

tion is a little different. Experi-

menting in all kinds of settings

is the only way to learn the per-

sonality of your boat. There are

devilish details: lazy jacks that

snag battens, sail covers and

Biminis that block the view.

Besides their sails, catamarans

have lots of sail area in fi ber-

glass and gelcoat. When you’re

sailing downwind, all that verti-

cal surface you see from behind

equates to sail area, and most of

it is aft of the mast. I’ve sailed

cats at more than 17 knots with

no sails at all! So the dynam-

ic balance of a cat is different

from a monohull.

When you start tinkering,

you’ll fi nd most cats sail well,

even tacking upwind, on jib

alone. But they hardly sail at

all on just the main. As big as

the main is, that seems coun-

terintuitive. But when I’m

alone on the boat and both en-

gines die at the worst moment,

the fi rst thing I reach for is

the jib sheet and furling line.

Before the anchor, before the

radio, before the life jacket, I

roll out the jib. Try it.

Learn your boat! When you

understand how it reacts in var-

ious conditions, you’ll pick up

other little clues that tell you if

it’s overpowered. I can tell a lot

just from the sound of the wa-

ter tumbling off the transom.

There are lots of cat sailors out

there now. Go to school on

the stuff they broke. Like elec-

trics, every mechanical system

should have a fuse. If you break

something, before you beef it

up, ask yourself if that was the

best place for an overload fail-

ure. A raceboat owner summed

that up best for me years ago,

and I never forgot: “Guys,

we sailed hard enough to

break some stuff, but it wasn’t

expensive. Great job!”

Don Margraf is a West Coast

multihull sailor, rigger and yacht

broker who mastered the fi ner

points of boathandling at Trial &

Error U.

Reefi ng while sailing downwind requires a new bag of tricks

since there’s a lot of friction on the sail. Before raising the

main, tie a downhaul line to the top sail slide (above). To

reef, fi nd a secure place to stand and use the downhaul to

get the sail started (top). In a pinch you may be able to lead

the downhaul aft to a manual winch.

DON MARGRAF