Putting in extra reefs

When we put the boom on its gooseneck at Fairlie we did not make sure that the wire for the main sail roller reefing was fully wound onto its drum. This meant some of the wire was already stretched out on the cabin roof when we wanted to put a reef in the sail. Normally we have to untie the first mast hoop to roll all possible sail onto the boom; this was no longer necessary, which left a lot more sail up than we were used to when "fully" reefed.

We really needed to get rid of more power when coming past Achill Island towards Westport and the only way to do it was to scandalise the main, by lowering the peak of the gaff. Sailing with the sail set this way is not good for it, and when I looked up I could see that one of the batons was caught on the topping lift, distorting the sail horribly.

In order to free the baton I asked Julian to loosen the tension on the throat halyard. When he did so the mast hoops slid down in an orderly way, and the sail geometry made the peak of the gaff to go up again, pulling the baton clear of the topping lift rope.

Looking at the sail I realised it had made a very nice shape again. There was a slight bag in the sail near the mast, but none at the stern end of the boom, so it was even higher peaked than normal, but that was the only difference. Tying the front of the sail down through the mast hoop cringle that was now closest to the boom created proper luff tension and we had our third reef!

We wound the wire properly onto its drum as soon as we got the chance, so we can reef properly again, but this is something to remember if we ever need to reef more than our roller reefing system will let us again.