one tip, when they start the reefing discussions with their son, the TOPPING LIFT is already tight, GOOD job for mentioning it, as not many mainsail reefing videos do, as they may have 'ridged' vangs, Selden roller furling booms, etc, but don't say so! ( the Topping Lift is an essential safety point, as when the halyard comes off there is NO leech tension, and this is what keeps the boom off the deck!!). Also the topping lift flattens the sail, so is also a good idea when using a Cunningham ( a line/tackle on the luff of the sail 2-3 inches above the tack, OR several rings, tied neer the reefing points at the luff to ensure the sail is slabbed parallel)-this is used to pull the shape out(less curve means less power!).
I now understand why no one seems to explain the reefing process - lots to know and do when putting in a reef. Everyone I've seen just says they do it without showing how. Many thanks.
good job as always ! I like your elastic to keep things smooth ! I used to work a a dock manager for a fleet of catamarans in guadeloupe, the skippers that bring the new boats from France (about 4-6 a year ) would absolutely thrash the boom around and I would have to change the teflon washer after the Atlantic crossing, with damage to the main as it sat on the spreaders all the way ! learning a lot from you ! please keep doing it !
Hi Shayne, I was looking through video to get a sense of how you were using the daggerboards. Would be able to comment on that? Thanks for the tip on moving the main off the stays.
Such a great channel. Love watching these videos and the interplay between rigging, setup, engineering knowledge and sailing experience. Cool that the kids are involved. I imagine they go on other yachts and are mystified at the drama and dysfunction. :)
What I don’t understand is that surely the battens are going to press against the stays as you release the halyard, making it very difficult to pull down the main.
Bascially by reefing we are reducing loads going through the boat. Especially rudders and bows. There are lots of factors at play in addition to those too. 1st reef and Frankie is Paikea's happy place. She's a rocket ship in this configuration
As the wind builds, the force vector on the main needs to be lowered as it’s resulting in too much heel angle (rotational moment on the boat). If not lowered, the added energy up high has to be counteracted with rudder angle, which can really burn up energy as rudder angle is equivalent to more hydrodynamic drag.
Very interesting video and very cool setup. One question: what would you have done, if you where on the other tack and your topping lift would be behind the square top of your main? Would you jibe before reefing or ist there a way to get the topping lift around the top of your sail?
OK, thank you for your reply. But when you‘re on the other tack and you tighten the topping lift, then your mainsail must be pressed against said topping lift and badly chafing, no?
Usually the topping lift is not pulled on tight and should not be chafing against the sail. The only reason we would have the topping lift on tight is to stop the boom from banging around. In that case, if there was an issue where the mainsail was pressing on the topping lift and we were going to stay on that tack for a length of time we would move topping lift to the other side.
Ha! We'd love to but it all comes down to time and money....or our lack of 😅😅 We have to reinforce the aft beam before we can install the track. And if we are going to be working on the aft beam, we have some carbon dinghy davits we'd like to install.... and lift up the solar panel bracket.... probably add a better bracket for Starlink....etc etc. It's an expensive can of worms and we still work for a living. Soooo in the mean time you all get to hear Shayne complain 😄
Thanks for sharing your pro knowledge! it looks like you do not have any spreaders or is it something wrong with my eyes? how do the rig survie without spreaders, is it beacause of your superstrong carbon mast?
You are correct. Our mast is made from an ex America's Cup mast and is incredibly stiff. It is made from high modulus carbon fibre and does not need spreaders.
Thanks for your answer :-) That must be an absolute pleasure on a multihull! I just sold my trimaran that I sailed for almost ten years, it had way back swept spreaders and all the issues that comes with that. I sold my tri because I like to try my old dream to sail the oceans, looking for a "perfomance" catamaran to do this. Once you go multihull there is no going back :-) Again, thanks for sharing your pro advices, you guys know how stuff works! I was absolutely amazed how you made the rudders, bowsprit and so on with so little stuff on hand, thats true skill and knowledge, amazing! Happy new 2024! @@youngbarnacles
The direction of the apparent wind is the big driver. Basically anything after 115 apparent is when we attach the spinnaker to the windward bow. It exposes more spinnaker and allows us position the boat where we need.
Ernst at Tropical Sails in St Martin is a top man who has given me excellent service over years of yacht deliveries. Did you crack your 200 miles a day yet? What was your average on that leg?
Ernst is a legend. Yup we cracked our 200nm day on that leg of our journey. A 215nm day and 4 days in a row at over 200nm. It was a quick trip to the Azores. It took us 14 days
It's exactly the same process to reef in heavier airs. Actually it's easier as the car doesn't get stuck in the sticky spot. If its too scary we don't bother going forward to attach cunningham until it all settles down.
I cannot understand the current trend for swept back stays and no back stays for cruising boats. It is like driving a sports car that takes 20 minutes to change gear…oh and no brakes to speak of. When the sh1t hits the fan you can not go beam on and let the main out 90deg as you can with a masthead rig. My first cat had this, you can readily spill wind and slow down when needed. Of course the answer is an unstayed rig.
NO, at the end, you are not going faster due to the reef (this lowers power, hence speed for heavy weather sailing); it is, as a side affect of it; the lower main is not covering as much gennaker, so it is not as stalled, at the same angle of sail, so is powered up MORE, this is where your extra speed is coming from.
one tip, when they start the reefing discussions with their son, the TOPPING LIFT is already tight, GOOD job for mentioning it, as not many mainsail reefing videos do, as they may have 'ridged' vangs, Selden roller furling booms, etc, but don't say so! ( the Topping Lift is an essential safety point, as when the halyard comes off there is NO leech tension, and this is what keeps the boom off the deck!!). Also the topping lift flattens the sail, so is also a good idea when using a Cunningham ( a line/tackle on the luff of the sail 2-3 inches above the tack, OR several rings, tied neer the reefing points at the luff to ensure the sail is slabbed parallel)-this is used to pull the shape out(less curve means less power!).
Best sailing channel
I now understand why no one seems to explain the reefing process - lots to know and do when putting in a reef. Everyone I've seen just says they do it without showing how. Many thanks.
good job as always ! I like your elastic to keep things smooth ! I used to work a a dock manager for a fleet of catamarans in guadeloupe, the skippers that bring the new boats from France (about 4-6 a year ) would absolutely thrash the boom around and I would have to change the teflon washer after the Atlantic crossing, with damage to the main as it sat on the spreaders all the way ! learning a lot from you ! please keep doing it !
Awesome!
PS we love Guadeloupe
Hi Shayne, I was looking through video to get a sense of how you were using the daggerboards. Would be able to comment on that? Thanks for the tip on moving the main off the stays.
Such a great channel. Love watching these videos and the interplay between rigging, setup, engineering knowledge and sailing experience. Cool that the kids are involved. I imagine they go on other yachts and are mystified at the drama and dysfunction. :)
Glad you are enjoying the channel. The kids love being involved and it makes it heaps easier to sail long distances when everyone can sail the boat 👍
I would think the reef allowed better airflow to the spinnaker which was a much more efficient sail for that apparent wind direction
There are a heap of factors at play. Reducing the main sail area reduces load on the rudders, it also reduces the load on the bows.
With the main in so tight, is the wind flow over the sail reversed?
What I don’t understand is that surely the battens are going to press against the stays as you release the halyard, making it very difficult to pull down the main.
that's so weird, reefed main and more speed, wind looked pretty steady. strange.
Bascially by reefing we are reducing loads going through the boat. Especially rudders and bows. There are lots of factors at play in addition to those too. 1st reef and Frankie is Paikea's happy place. She's a rocket ship in this configuration
As the wind builds, the force vector on the main needs to be lowered as it’s resulting in too much heel angle (rotational moment on the boat). If not lowered, the added energy up high has to be counteracted with rudder angle, which can really burn up energy as rudder angle is equivalent to more hydrodynamic drag.
Very interesting video and very cool setup. One question: what would you have done, if you where on the other tack and your topping lift would be behind the square top of your main? Would you jibe before reefing or ist there a way to get the topping lift around the top of your sail?
You can ease out the topping lift while reefing as the reefing line should hold the boom in place.
OK, thank you for your reply. But when you‘re on the other tack and you tighten the topping lift, then your mainsail must be pressed against said topping lift and badly chafing, no?
Usually the topping lift is not pulled on tight and should not be chafing against the sail. The only reason we would have the topping lift on tight is to stop the boom from banging around. In that case, if there was an issue where the mainsail was pressing on the topping lift and we were going to stay on that tack for a length of time we would move topping lift to the other side.
Such good stuff from you guys but I wonder why you haven’t yet installed a mainsail track 🤷🏼♂️
Ha! We'd love to but we have two problems - time and money 😅
Ha! We'd love to but it all comes down to time and money....or our lack of 😅😅
We have to reinforce the aft beam before we can install the track. And if we are going to be working on the aft beam, we have some carbon dinghy davits we'd like to install.... and lift up the solar panel bracket.... probably add a better bracket for Starlink....etc etc. It's an expensive can of worms and we still work for a living. Soooo in the mean time you all get to hear Shayne complain 😄
Thanks for sharing your pro knowledge! it looks like you do not have any spreaders or is it something wrong with my eyes? how do the rig survie without spreaders, is it beacause of your superstrong carbon mast?
You are correct. Our mast is made from an ex America's Cup mast and is incredibly stiff. It is made from high modulus carbon fibre and does not need spreaders.
Thanks for your answer :-) That must be an absolute pleasure on a multihull! I just sold my trimaran that I sailed for almost ten years, it had way back swept spreaders and all the issues that comes with that. I sold my tri because I like to try my old dream to sail the oceans, looking for a "perfomance" catamaran to do this. Once you go multihull there is no going back :-) Again, thanks for sharing your pro advices, you guys know how stuff works! I was absolutely amazed how you made the rudders, bowsprit and so on with so little stuff on hand, thats true skill and knowledge, amazing! Happy new 2024! @@youngbarnacles
Great stuff!
What determines whether you tack the spinnaker to the bow or to the spirt?
The direction of the apparent wind is the big driver. Basically anything after 115 apparent is when we attach the spinnaker to the windward bow. It exposes more spinnaker and allows us position the boat where we need.
Ernst at Tropical Sails in St Martin is a top man who has given me excellent service over years of yacht deliveries. Did you crack your 200 miles a day yet? What was your average on that leg?
Ernst is a legend. Yup we cracked our 200nm day on that leg of our journey. A 215nm day and 4 days in a row at over 200nm. It was a quick trip to the Azores. It took us 14 days
@@youngbarnacles recently did Hobart to Fiji 2550 miles in 12 days 15 hrs, for a 201.9 mile per day average. Only one hull and no carbon. Just saying.
Thats a good run! Yep. You don't need 2 hulls and carbon fibre for it to be a good sailing boat 👍👍
What is the exact piece of hardware you are using for the Cunningham to attach to the sail? TiA
Hey Chad! It's a Tylaska T8. I can't share a photo here so I'll put it up on FB/insta/YT short for you
@@youngbarnacles thanks! I was just at FKG here in St Martin and those are not cheap! All the best with your refit.
They are a bit pricey 😬
No show us the process when you get hit by a scary gust. Can you still reef on the run..or do you have to round up.
It's exactly the same process to reef in heavier airs. Actually it's easier as the car doesn't get stuck in the sticky spot. If its too scary we don't bother going forward to attach cunningham until it all settles down.
I cannot understand the current trend for swept back stays and no back stays for cruising boats.
It is like driving a sports car that takes 20 minutes to change gear…oh and no brakes to speak of.
When the sh1t hits the fan you can not go beam on and let the main out 90deg as you can with a masthead rig. My first cat had this, you can readily spill wind and slow down when needed.
Of course the answer is an unstayed rig.
NO, at the end, you are not going faster due to the reef (this lowers power, hence speed for heavy weather sailing); it is, as a side affect of it; the lower main is not covering as much gennaker, so it is not as stalled, at the same angle of sail, so is powered up MORE, this is where your extra speed is coming from.