Posted by lance_ryley (lance_ryley@…>)
Merlise,
sounds like you did it right. A racing skipper might hold each reef
point longer, but… racing skippers break a lot of stuff holding
conditions too long, too. I used to sail with some people on a Hunter
Legend, and on that boat the gauge of when things get hairy was
named “Donna,” the captain’s wife. We affectionately referred to her
as the “donnamometer,” and when she went off, it was time to reef!
The essence of good sail trim is the balancing act between the
pressure on the sails, the heel of the boat, and the amount of rudder
necessary to keep the boat going in the desired direction. In an
ideal world, the rudder would have no ‘pressure’ on it (reducing
drag), the boat would be at whatever its optimum heel is (my CK 40
seems to like about 15 degrees), and the sails would be full, but
just barely seeing a luff along the leading edge. The main thing
though is that you feel like you’re in control of the boat - that is,
that you have enough forward momentum to feel you can maneuver the
boat safely, but not so much that you feel like the boat is at any
moment going to start yawing out of control under you. If you were
comfortable with two reefs and a camberspar jib, then that was the
right sail set for you. Could you have shaken out a reef going
downwind? sure, but again, if the boat felt like it was in control,
then leaving the reefs in was the right choice. I personally feel
that you should leave the jib up for as long as possible, especially
if it’s essentially a blade jib like the camberspar - it allows you
to tack easier than under main alone, and it also helps to balance
the center of effort closer to the center of the boat, giving you a
bit more control.
Lastly, about travellers. in heavy wind, going upwind, it sounds like
you did the right thing - dump the traveller down to relieve some of
the pressure on the sail, but keep the sheet in to help control the
boom. the sheet ends up working like a vang to help keep the boom and
sail flat, depowering it (see previous posts). On the boat I race on,
it’s always “ease traveller, then ease sheet if necessary” in upwind
legs.
The talk about all the reefing in the cat ketch designs is
essentially because we’re carrying two “mains” to your one, and the
boats can become overpowered pretty quickly. Also, the placement of
the mizzen increases the weather helm if there’s too much sail up.
I’ve found that putting a reef in the mizzen in some cases actually
increases the speed of the boat - and the pointing ability - by
reducing the rudder drag.
Hope some of this helps.
Happy sailing 
Lance
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “merliseclyde” <clyde@s…>
wrote:
As newbies, we’re looking for any advice from others on better sail
trim/reefing on a Freedom 35 (sloop). We have had 15-20 knot winds
over the last couple of weekends. Yesterday, with the wind speed
consistently around 18-23, we had two reefs in the main and
adjusted
the traveler outward for a close haul. We were still making upto
7.3
knots close-hauled with much easier control at the helm and reduced
heeling. After reading the post for sail trim/reefing for the cat
ketch, did we reef the main in too early? Also, we left the reefs
in
for the downwind sail back to the marina (wing&wing) - should we
take
them out then?
My question: what do other do in these conditions for upwind/down
wind
performance/control?
What do you do in higher winds? (when do you drop the jib/main,
etc)
BTW we have two reef points in the main and a cambarspar jib.
Thanks!
Merlise
F35 #32