[alberg30] RE: Racing w/ high-cut jib

[finnus505 at aol.com]

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In a message dated 9/19/00 11:52:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
lincoln at cc.umanitoba.ca writes:

<< The main also has a 'mini-reef' (I
 don't know what to call it) that is about six inches up
 the leading edge and hooking this down seems to make
 the ordinary sailing bett >>

I've always heard this reffered to as a 'flattening reef'.  When I was 
crewing on Ensigns, in the early 70's, not every boat had one, and the ones 
that did had a distinct advantage in windward boatspeed at 18 to 20 or so 
knots of wind.

Of course, this was in Brooklyn, and everything is different there!

When I was ordering a main for my Alberg 22 15 years later, I asked the 
sailmaker at UK sails on City Island to incorporate a flattening reef in my 
sail, as I remembered how effective and helpful it had been on the other 
boat.  The sailmaker said he hadn't put one a sail in a long time.  The new 
sail materials, even on cruising sails, are so stiff and strong, and have 
such little stretch compared to older dacrons,  that they stand up to heavy 
vanging, and so flattening the sail with the outhaul, lots of vang, and 
traveler use are the modern way to depower in these conditions, until the 
wind is strong enough to warrant the first reef.

Of course, not everything was perfect. When I ordered the sail, I specificaly 
ordered a jackline on the lower part of the luff of the main to allow the 
reefs to be tucked in without having to open the gate on the mast track to 
let the slides down every time I wanted to reef.  When we went to pick up the 
sail- no jackline.  I asked what had happened, and  he did not know what it 
was, and had to take out a sailmaking book for diagrams and an explanation.  
They didn't make the luff of the sail 'shorter', to allow for the increased 
distance of the sail from the mast that the jackline causes, but even so, he 
just added the cringles that would allow the jackline to be reeved. Now that 
the jackline moved the sail back a half inch or so from the mast,  as 
beautiful a sail as it was, it was always a little fuller than I would have 
liked.
Lee
Stargazer #255



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