Reefing Sharpie rigs

[kevin brennan]

I'm looking for information about the vertical reefing that was used on the earlier sharpies with leg'o mutton sails. I understand how it would set up and function and in my mine it would be easily done, slack the snotter, haul and make fast the reef line, and tighten the snotter. What confounds me is why this type of reefing fell out of favor in favor of reef point parallel to the foot. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[J. Dillon]

Kevin,

Seriously thought about that method of reefing when I had my boat rigged as a sharpie. I gave up on the idea as I considered all that bunched up sail vertical against the mast as determental to windward performance. It seemed to me it would spoil any air foil and create un-desirable eddies. Have no direct experience though. JD

[Tom Lathrop]

Jack is probably right about the wad of sail messing up air flow. You can trade off more points and rigging on the mast for a smaller reefed bundle. Unless you use a track on the aft side of the mast, the other method you mention gives a problem on the luff attachment points passing the snotter on the way down.

Another method is to roll up some luff by rotating the mast. This requires a slot in the sail in the way of the snotter to allow clearance when rolling. It also requires a snotter that can rotate or allowence for changing the length of the snotter line.

Some abandon the leg o' mutton rig in favor of a boom and shorten sail by rolling on the mast (Sea Pearl) or tying in a reef on the boom like other rigs.

With the cat ketch leg o' mutton rig, we almost never need to reef with the center of effort low and divided. On my 15 ft skiff, with a cat ketch leg o' mutton rig, I never reefed it in several years of sailing.

If the boat is small, I would not rig for reefing and for a larger boat, I would probably opt for sail track and reef by lowering the sail.

[Scott Mason]

Jim Michalak has provided a great synopsis of the available sharpie reefing systems; check this link:

http://marina.fortunecity.com/breakwater/274/1999/0701/Index.htm#Reefing%20Sharpie%20Sprit%20Sails

In summary, he says that the vertical reefing systems go in well but can be very difficult to shake out, short of unstepping the mast. For my Bolger Gypsy, I recently put in the horizontal reefing system with a topping lift and halyard that he describes. It works great on the trailer but I have yet to put in a reef on the water. Good Luck.

[Keith Wilson]

FWIW Jim Michalak had a fairly detailed article about reefing this type of sail in his newsletter, see:
http://marina.fortunecity.com/breakwater/274/1999/0701/Index.htm

I have never tried the vertical reefing either, thinking that it would be difficult to get the excess sail higher up the mast tho tie up neatly. I think that any loose sail up that high might be quite unpleasant in a blow - OTOH, the old New Haven oystermen weren't fools - poor, frugal, or both, but not fools, so it might work better than I think.

Just saw the above post - great minds thinking alike, no doubt, seven minutes apart. ;)

[This message has been edited by Keith Wilson (edited 07-10-2001).]

[kevin brennan]

All, Thanks for the input. That essay by Michalak is some interesting reading. I'm looking for a way to add sail area to the mizzen for lighter air performance but need to be able to pull in a reef with relative ease since this is the sail that will hold me into the wind when it comes time to reef. If you're ever on the Chesapeake give me a shout, I'm always looking for an excuse.

[dadadata]

Chapelle or Gardner describes the vertical reefing as happening by lowering the sail, and tying the points in one by one as the sail is re-hoisted. This implies two guys in the boat, I'd think. Poss three.

The lousy windward performance was of no matter back in 'them days' since it's clear that if the wind were that bad they would be running, or at most broad-reaching, like hell for the nearest shelter. These were nearshore working boats, not racing yachts.

As far as other reefing it seems typical to have reefed up from the foot. There are very few photos of reefed sharpies under sail. Chapelle published one in "Migrations of an American Boat Type" which was credited to Wirth Munroe. Perhaps taken by his dad Commodore M.

As far as sharpie reefing in general, the Commodore was a very bright guy who used and say sharpies used every day for years, and his recommendation of batten/slab reefing makes perfect sense to me.

I have worked out and (untried) method of reefing a sharpie sail with club a la Chesapeake; while I'm not saying the old timers done it this way,there's no reason it would not work.