Mainsail Reefing line markings

Marking the Mainsail Reefing Lines

We had crew aboard last weekend, so I was not doing all of the work when we needed to reef, that was when I realized that we need to improve the reefing process on Eximius.

Just to recap, here's the process of adding a reef to the Mainsail.

• Head up to close hauled
• Haul in on the Topping lift to prevent the boom dropping when...
• Lower the main halyard to bring the head of the sail down just below the next reefing point
• Haul in the next reefing point downhaul to tighten the luff
• Haul in on the Main halyard to tension the luff, now the main is currently raised to that reef.
• Haul in on the next reefing point outhaul to set the Clew of the sail
• Ease the Topping lift to set the leach of the mainsail
• Reef the Jib/Genoa as needed to balance the boat.
• Head back onto course

That's how we should add a reef to the mainsail.

The problem arises when having to check the position of the main halyard and the two sets of reefing lines. Glancing up from the cockpit in nasty weather is awkward. Hence the need to mark the lines for each reefing point.

My plan is to mark the Main Halyard, the #1 Reef downhaul & the #1 Outhaul as well as the #2 Reef Downhaul & the #2 Reef Outhaul

I want the markings to be easily seen from the cockpit and obvious.

Here's my plan. I'll mark the 5 lines in each position "Full Main", "1st Reef", "2nd Reef" using Red whipping line.

Each marking will comprise of 2 or 3 bands.

For the Full main, the bands will be 1" wide whippings

For the 1st Reef, the bands will be one narrow band and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

For the 2nd Reef, the bands will be two narrow bands and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

With these markings in place, it should be easy to tell when the lines are in the correct position both when adding a reef or taking a reef out.

We'll see how that works out.

Any comments? Do you mark your reefing lines and if so, what method do you use?

See you on the water, reefed or not.

Paul