Mainsail - Topping Lift and Reefing Lines

It has been a day of raising and lowering the mast, many times! Because the hinge point of the mast is high I don't have much mechanical advantage when standing on the floor of the boat. I find it is essential to stand on the seats or the top of the centreboard case. From there it is a fairly easy lift to raise the mast, first to shoulder height and then push it up to arms length. In this position it is difficult to move forward and so the lifting line comes into play. This line is clipped through the end of the forestay and then runs through an S hook back to me as I lift the mast; I hold it in my teeth and use both arms to lift.

With the mast vertical I step forward taking in the slack on the line to the forestay and tie it off securely to the Samson post. I get out of the boat and lace the forestay down to the eye nearest the end of the bowsprit with the blue cord. This could be done from the foredeck but it would not be easy to get enough tension into the forestay, pulling downwards with the end of the bowsprit at shoulder height allows the strong pull necessary to tension the rigging. Once laced down and tied off the clip and line can be removed until the mast is to be lowered.

 

The mast is now raised so the mainsail can be bent on to the gaff and mast and the clew of the sail tied to the end of the boom. This is what it looks like.

 

 

The topping lift cum lazy jacks is in position but needs some adjustment (enlarge the photo and you will see the lines). It was quite tricky to get the lengths of rope right and roughly the same on both sides of the sail but it works well. When lowering the sail I hold both halyards in one hand and let the gaff down slowly while I move back in the boat and make the head of the sail fold down tidily onto the boom with the gaff on top of the folds. I tied up this bundle with a length of tape to make a tidy parcel, photo on left below.

 

 On the right the parcel has been lowered onto the side seat ready for the mast to be lowered on   to the stand at the back of the boat. Once the mast is down the parcel of spars and sail is tied up against the mast ready for travelling. The is what it looks like. Note that the parcel also includes the jib.

When travelling the mizzen mast, gaff, boom, sail and boomkin is made into a bundle and laid diagonally across the seats - it just fits. I will pad under and around the ends with some foam rubber to protect the paintwork.

 

Today's other job was to organise some reefing lines. I chose the simplest system I could think of and may have to modify it after trying it out on the water. All I did was to tie a pendant through the reefing eyes at the luff and leech of the sail. To take in a reef the gaff is lowered so the eye can be pulled down to the boom and then tied in position with the pendant. At the luff the line is taken under the boom, through the eye and then around the mast  before being tied off. At the leech the line goes under the boom back through the eye and then to the B block at the end of the boom to be tied off. The second reef is tied in the same as the first one. Here are photos of the reefed sail, one reef on the left and two reefs on the right.