Reefing a dinghy is where you reduce the sail size to make the boat more manageable in stronger winds. It is a lot easier to reef your dinghy before you go afloat than trying to do it on the water. It is better to err on the side of caution as it does not take long to take a reef out on the water but a great deal longer to put one in.
The way in which you reef your boat will depend on its sail and mainsheet configuration.
The large majority of single handed boats can be reefed by rolling the main sail around the mast.
Double handed boats cannot be reefed as they have shrouds and a forestay.
If you have an aft main sheet dinghy such as an enterprise or GP14, you reef by rolling the main sail around the boom.
1. Attach a reefing strop (this could be a sail bag or a piece of rope etc) to the kicking strap attachment on the boom.
2. Take a tuck (a fold) of mainsail about a foot in size in the leech of the sail. This will stop the boom sitting low at the back of the boat (this is due to the fact that the leech is longer than the luff).
3. Roll the sail around the boom to the desired size. This is normally to the first batten. Please note you should never have the sail so that the top comes below where the forestay and shrouds meet the mast. If you require a larger reef you can increase the size of the tuck.
4. Ensure while rolling, the luff of the sail is kept at the end of the boom and is not allowed to creep up the boom otherwise it will put a lot of pressure on the sail material once hoisted.
5. Put the boom on to the gooseneck before hoisting the sail. When hoisting you may find it easier to lift the end of the boom up into the air.
Slab reefing is mainly used for dinghies with a centre main configuration.
1. Starting at the luff, thread the cunningham up through all of the eyelets (cringles) and then take back down and cleat off tight.
2. Next go to the clew. If it is a loose footed sail put the slug into the boom. Next take the outhaul to the bottom cringle and feed it up in and out of all the other cringles up to the top one which you then can take back to the end of the boom and secure in the normal way. If there is a second slug, feed this into the boom.
3. Now pull the outhaul on tight. This should make the sail look a bit neater. Quite often there are sail ties (reefing pennants) or even bungee that can be taken round the excess sail to tidy it up using a reef knot.
Please note that some boats have a separate reefing line to outhaul so that you can leave it threaded throughout your sail just in case you want to reef at any time.
