VIDEO – Reducing sails in high winds

Reducing sails in high winds, especially taking or giving reefing hands, the topic of the tenth video-episode of SAIL School, in which we find out how to perform a perfect maneuver on a cruising boat.

Reduce sails in strong winds, take reefing hand

Taking reefing hands, reducing the area of the jib, are the maneuvers to be performed to reduce the sail area exposed to the wind, and adjust the sail to the wind as it intensifies. In today’s video, our sailing experts illustrate in addition to how to adjust the mainsail, how to take a hand of reefing and reduce the sail, directly from the cockpit in total safety, as is done on all modern cruising boats.

Take the first coat of terzaroli, with the circuit

The procedure you will find in the video, is the modern one with circuit, which is very different from the classic one that is still required at the “boating license” exams. In fact, all cruising sailboats for decades now have had a modern boom equipped with a double circuit for first- and second-hand borosas. As you will see in the video, At the arrival of the strong wind, you do all theTo maneuver safely while remaining in the cockpit, without having to go to the base of the mast…so you will not find in the video illustrated how to “snare the gill on the trough horn” simply because this maneuver is now found only on racing sailboats or very old cruising boats. Here are the key steps illustrated in the video:

• I check for tension on the vang by opening the vang stopper
• I let go of the mainsheet, enough to reduce tension in the luff
• I prepare the mainsail halyard on the winch with one turn, and holding it I open the stopper (to let go), simultaneously:
  • Fuck the first borosa, and if possible, recover in parallel the second borosa
  • I slacken the halyard, and close the stopper when the mura point of the first hand is about 40cm from the boom
• Fuck the borosa, fuck and block the halyard, fuck the mainsail, and keep sailing.

On when it is appropriate to take a reefing hand, we recommend reading the article Reefing hand, how much wind is needed? and solo sailors, interested in the third reefing hand, will find supplementary to the video the article How to take a reefing hand solo

Tenth video episode of Sailing School

Below is today’s video on how to reduce sail in high winds and how to take a reefing hand. All previous video episodes of SAIL School, are available on the SAIL Journal youtube channel there are both beginner and expert ones!