[Siobhan II]

My wife and I are in our 60's and would like to rig a single line jiffy reef system back to the cockpit to spare our old knees and joints. Does anyone have a diagram on how to do one that would keep the reef foot tight? We have a double reef main.
Thanks!!

[garyterrisail]

Hi Siobhan,
We just joined the forum, but we've sailed a lot of miles [near our 60's, too].
We've done single-line and double line on our two boats. So, the first question must be what sized boat do you have? The reason I ask is that any boat over 34-35' may be better hanled with double line. Now, double line is not that much more difficult to do and can be led to a single sheet stopper and winch as I've done on my Endeavour 40.

If you still want info, feel free to contact me.

Gary Beckett
S/V Sabbatical

[Restless Soul]

Gary, I have a similar question:
I am a rank novice. I bought a Catalina 22 to learn with up here on a TVA lake in the Smoky Mountains. Some documentation I received with the boat indicates it is already rigged, fittings wise, for single line reefing. However, I don't know how to rig the jiffy reef line. There are two curved back, single cheek blocks mounted on the side of the boom which I believe are used for reefing, and there is an extra sheave in a deck organizer beside the mast that I believe may be used to run the reef line aft to either an extra clam cleat or a clutch located at the cockpit. However, I don't know how to rig the reef line to the sail itself before the line runs to the blocks mounted on the boom.

I thought I would run into something along the way that would explain all this, but I haven't so far.

I hope it is OK to ask this question on this thread.

Thanks,

Restless Soul

[Osiris]

Restless Soul, Jiffy or single line reefing involves using one line led to the cockpit to put down both the new reef tack and the clew. This is done with a line attached to the reef clew on the aft edge of the sail and runs down to a fixed block on the end of the boom and then to tied to a floating block along side or inside the boom. A second line is tied to the reef tack and then comes down to the gooseneck end of the boom where a double fixed block sends the line to the sheave of the floating block and then back to the double fixed block. The line continues down to a deck level block and then aft to the cockpit.
- - Pulling on the cockpit line results in the clew tack line pulling down the sail and at the same time pulls down the reefing tack line at the mast. In production boats the lines and floating block are located inside the boom. The problem of locating it outside the boom is the floating block "hangs down" below the boom and can get snagged on something when you do not have the reef set.
- - You can get the same effective system without the floating block by continuing the aft pull down line to the double fixed block on the mast end of the boom then down and back to the cockpit. Then you have two lines to pull, one for the reefing aft clew and one for the reefing tack pull down line. Large sails use block at the sail reef tack and reef clew and each line for the reef tack/clew starts at the boom and travels up to the clew/tack blocks then back down on the original path describe above. This gives you mechanical advantage to haul down a larger sail.