| Did you know that your mainsail luff and leech | | | | grommet (ring) in the luff reef cringle over the |
| come under enormous loads when reefed. In | | | | horn. |
| heavy sailing weather, you want to make sure | | | | 3. Haul around on the mainsail halyard and raise |
| that your mainsail keeps in one piece without the | | | | the sail as far as possible by hand. Place 3 to 4 |
| worry of rips, tears, or hardware failure. Learn to | | | | wraps around the mainsail halyard winch and grind |
| sail like a pro with these five easy steps to make | | | | to get good luff tension. You want the mainsail |
| sure this doesn't happen to you! | | | | luff to take the most of the load, so take your |
| Concentrate on the mainsail luff to insure that | | | | time to get this right. |
| your sail has enough tension to avoid damage. | | | | 4. Pull the leech reef cringle line down to the |
| Think of the luff like the front part of a button up | | | | boom. Larger boats may use a boom mounted |
| shirt. Reach behind you, grab a handful of shirt, | | | | winch to do this. Get the leech reef cringle |
| and pull back and down. | | | | grommet as close the top of the boom as |
| This simulates the tension the leech places on | | | | possible. If necessary, use extra line as a |
| those mainsail luff slides or slugs. In this example, | | | | downhaul. This will insure that your reefed mainsail |
| those buttons will either pop off the shirt, and/or | | | | has good foot tension. |
| the shirt will rip or tear. Follow these easy steps | | | | 5. Haul in on the mainsheet and set the vang for |
| to get your mainsail reefed the right way: | | | | reaching. Keep an eye on the luff and seams for |
| 1. Set the topping lift (if needed) to keep the | | | | any signs of excessive strain. If needed, add a bit |
| boom up off the deck. Slack off on the | | | | more tension to the luff. Remember, the luff |
| mainsheet and boom vang to allow the mainsail to | | | | needs to take most of the load any time you |
| flutter and enable you to hoist it again after | | | | reef your sails. |
| reefing. | | | | Follow these five simple steps to get just the |
| 2. Release the mainsail halyard. Pull the sail down | | | | right tension when sail reefing your mainsail. That |
| to the first or second luff reef cringle with the luff | | | | way, you will avoid costly sail repairs and gain |
| reef line. Or, if you have a reef hook on your | | | | more life from your sailboat sails for many sailing |
| gooseneck (also called a "rams horn"}, slide the | | | | seasons to come. |