Reefing strategy with Bavaria 38 2003 with furling main with vertical battens?

[pjl]

Hi!

We are new to sailing and to the boat which is a 2003 Bavaria 38. We have furling main and vertical battens and both sails are original, so they are not in their best shape.

We've had a great summer with the boat and learned a lot. Most of our sailing has been in good weather without the need to reef plus few times with winds around 20-25 knots. With the stronger winds we've explored different kinds of strategies, but haven't yet found out our way of doing this.

Now as I'm also new to the forum, I'd like to ask fellow sailors when and how do you reef and how do you feel about how the boat sails when the wind is blowing harder? Any insight would help us in our journey to learn how to sail our boat better and safer.

[Kibo]

Reefing depends on your individual boat characteristics and point of sail (angle to the wind) an number/experience of crew.

Having said that in my case (Bav Vision 46 with just 2 onboard) much over 17-20knts apparent wind and I put at least one reef in both sails. Next one at about 23 -25knts.  In the case of your roller furling you may have marks on your sails for 1, 2 and even 3 reefs. If not then my guidelines are to look at your main and take in about 2-3 feet of foot for one reef, 2-3 more feet for two reefs and then more if necessary. Make tape marks on your boom where the clew outhaul block should be for each reef and/or your mainsail to correspond to that if you don't have them already.

For the Genoa think in terms of percentage of the fore triangle. 100% being a full triangle made up of mast, foredeck and forestay, sail leech overlapping past the mast is going over 100% and anything short of the mast coming aft being under 100%. The exact percentage to look for depends on the size of your full headsail but let's assume you have a typical headsail of about 130%. To put in one reef roll up your Genoa to about 110-115%, 2 reefs roll further to about 100% etc. Again mark on your sail at the foot where the "new tack" for each reef would be with self adhesive sail tape spots in contrasting colour so you can easily see them.

As a rule of thumb the more upwind you traveling the more reef may be needed but don't forget that margin of safety if you are not racing !

It is better to have a balanced rig and boat than a potentially overpowered one which can be frightening at best and dangerous at worst. Even sailing downwind on a breezy day with full sail and surfing the waves you may need to turn around sometime !

Hope that helps.  Can I also suggest taking a professional skipper or instructor out with you one windy day for help if you are nervous.

[pjl]

Safety comes first and if before we feel even a bit unsafe, we reef. We're also learning to be more proactive so we would be ready when the wind picks up. We try to stay under 20 degrees of heel and also watch the rudder angle on the Autopilot screen and try to keep it under 10 degrees.

I'm using the battens as reef marks in the main: 1 batten for the first etc. Seems to work quite well. In around 25 knots apparent  I have had the second batten furled in on the main and the headsail rolled so that the clew was in front of the mast. This seems to keeps us going with decent amount of heel and speed and still able to point to 30-35 degrees apparent.

On Sunday we reefed similarly as we were caught in rain and gusty winds. The winds stayd around 12-15 knots and we discovered that even with the reefed sails we had our boat sailing past a 32 Bavaria which was sailing with full sails. I think that proved us the point of reefing early and keeping the boat balanced and not heeling too much.

Marking the headsail is something that I think I'll do to be more consistent.

[Kibo]

Seems like you have a good reefing strategy already, I took it from your post that you were very new to sailing and had not reefed yet so sorry if my post was a little basic. I agree that keeping the boat going smoothly, especially upwind with controlled heel is a very good idea not only for safety but often for speed too as you have seen. My boat actually prefers a reef earlier than later to keep her controlled and balanced even reaching. I have also tried combinations of reefing only one sail at a time in certain conditions which also works well depending on point of sail. My main has no battens so I do find the marks useful as a guide.  Kiitos

[rbrtmccorkle]

I think all the above reefing comments are on point - particularly the comment making general suggestions about where to mark the reeling points.

But let's remember the comment about balance!  This is what is truly powerful about having two furling sails, once you've hit your generalized marks, remember we're sailors and there is an art and feel aspect to good sailing. The power derived from reefing, furling sails is that it very easy to fine tune the reefs such that it's a light handed sailing experience. Do this and your auto pilot will also thank you.

Bob McCorkle
SV Chaos (Bav Ocean 42)

[dawntreader]

Good advice above. Something you may also want to consider when sailing in heavy weather with the auto-pilot is to dis-engage it and take the helm. You will then get a feel of how she is sailing and whether the sails are set correctly. Any heavy pulling or hard work will allow you to correct this and you can then re-engage the auto-pilot.

[Salty]

All very good advice in the foregoing posts, the only thing I'd add is that if you are ever wondering if you have reached the point where it's necessary to reef, the answer is always yes. It's much better to do it early than to be caught out by a sudden increase in wind speed, on top of which if my boat, B36(2002) is anything to go by, it sails much better when it is more upright and not hard pressed.

[Kibo]

That's very true Salty.

Fortunately for me the first mate is the reefing dictator aboard so we tend to start out with two before we leave the shelter of the bay and can shake them out if we want to go into what she calls my "racing mode".....

Here in the Lesser Antilles it's nearly always blowing 15-20knts in winter so she is usually correct !!

Happy New Year and sail safe.

[Salty]

.................so she is usually correct !!

Well that's what being the guvnor is all about !!

Safe sailing Ian, and happy new year to you both.

[SofiaB]

PJ,

Not sure if others are actually answering your question:  "how to reef?" versus "when to reef?".   If not the latter, this is what we do:

Considering 2 people:  captain (at the helm) and mate (wake her up).  If we are into the wind, we trim the main first.  If we are off the wind and need to reef, we trim the head sail first. 

Upwind, start the procedure with the sails trimmed to tight upwind and the main at center or slightly on the port side.  Trim the main.  This is, by the way, the same procedure as furling in the main.  Furling winch set to free-spin on the mast.
1) Mate:  pass the outhaul to the captain.
2) Captain:  attach the outhaul sheet to the starboard, aft  (mainsheet) winch (at the helm) with 2 winds.  This is used for back-pressure on the sail so it doesn't flap all over. 
3) Mate:  Attach the furl-in sheet to the cabin top winch, four wraps and wrap the furl-out once (or twice in heavy wind).
4) Captain:  Steer into the wind, but a few degrees off dead upwind so the sail is on the port side.
5) Mate:  Unlock the sheets:  outhaul, furl-in, furl-out
6) Mate:  Grind the winch while holding the furl-out.  We have it wrapped once on the same winch.
7) Captain:  Pay out the outhaul until the main is reefed.
8) Mate:  Lock all sheets and trim outhaul as needed.

Note: We rarely reef the head sail when heading into the wind.  If needed, we continue to reef the main.  We also have electric winches, so the procedure above is slightly different with the Captain engaging all winches from the helm, even the cabin top.

Off the wind, if we need to reef, we reef the head sail first. 
1) Mate:  remove the 5th wrap (self tailed end) from the which, leaving four wraps on the winch (holding it with your hand) and wait to pay out the line, to assist with sail control.
2) Captain:  attach the furl-in line to the main sheet winch, 4 wraps, leaving the sheet locked.
3) Captain:  steer further down-wind.
4) Mate:  let off the jib sheet depowering the jib fully, but maintaining control.
5) Captain:  furl in the jib with the furling line, to the desired reef location (ensure the jib sheet is locked).
6) Mate:  reattach the jim sheet with four wraps, trim the jib


I would like comments on "how" others reef with a furling main/head sail and single line reefing system.   We do also reef the jib into the wind, but we don't like all the flapping around.  We also furl-in the jib fully when down-wind with all the pressure off the headstay. 

I'd love to hear other's tips on reefing in heavy winds; do you follow these procedures or what do you do differently??

PJ, hope this makes sense and helps!

Stuart