How to Maintain Your Mainsail Reefing System and Practice a Reef at the Dock

Pull each reef line out of the boom or along its run and look at every inch. Replace lines that are stiff, glazed, fuzzy, or have a cover that has slipped or worn through, especially where they turn around a block or exit the boom. See /guides/running-rigging-synthetic for how to judge wear.

Color-coding each reef line, as on this boom, makes it much easier to grab the right one in a hurry.

Spin every block and sheave the reef lines run through. BoatUS's rig inspection calls for all blocks to turn freely. Look for cracked cheeks, flat spots on sheaves, and loose rivets or screws holding blocks and cheek plates to the boom. Check shackles are seized with wire.

At the gooseneck, look at the reef hooks (or ram's horns) that hold the luff cringle. They should be straight and firmly attached. Look for cracks or corrosion around the gooseneck and vang fittings, which BoatUS lists as common trouble spots on older boats.

Lower the mainsail or hoist it on a calm day and look at the reef cringles (metal rings) at the luff and leech. Check the stitching and patches around them are intact and that the rings are not pulling out. Check that the small reef point lines or grommets along each reef row are all there. Small tears here grow fast; take them to a sailmaker early (see /guides/sail-care-storage).

Look closely at the leech next to each clew cringle. Rigger Herb Benavent (Rigging Doctor) explains that the usual way of running the clew reef line, up through the cringle and back down the other side, can bunch sail cloth under the line and drag it into the cringle, wearing a hole in the leech. One fix is to lead the line over the leech instead, which keeps the cloth clear but moves the rubbing onto the leech edge. Either way, ask your sailmaker about a chafe patch: a small, replaceable piece of sailcloth sewn on where the line rubs.

With the sail hoisted, pull the clew reef line down and watch where it pulls. The leech cringle should come down to the boom and slightly aft so the foot of the reefed sail is tight. If it only pulls straight down or forward, the padeye or block on the boom is in the wrong place; a rigger or sailmaker can fix the lead.

Reef lines often end at a rope clutch or cam cleat in the cockpit. Close the clutch on a loaded line and tug hard; BoatUS says a line stopper shouldn't let the line slip at all. Service winches as in /guides/sailboat-winch-service.

A reef only works if the halyard can be eased and the sail slides down. BoatUS explains that friction between the sail slides and the mast track is usually what makes a mainsail hard to lower. Clean the track, and use only the dry lubricant your track or slide maker recommends. Check the slides and shackles along the luff are all present and not cracked.

With the sail reefed at the dock (step 11), put a durable mark on the halyard at the clutch or winch for each reef position. Under way you then ease the halyard to the mark, hook the luff, and haul the leech down without guessing.

• Rinse the furling gear, drum and the opening in the mast with fresh water, especially after salt spray, so salt and grit don't build up on bearings.
• Inspect the inhaul (furling) and outhaul lines for wear and their blocks and guides for free movement.
• Unfurl the sail fully on a calm day and look for creases, wear or stretched cloth, which make the sail roll badly.
• Modern Sailing, which runs a fleet with these masts, inspects its units every two weeks; owners should at least check them each season.
• Follow the maker's instructions for any lubrication. Don't spray anything into the mast that isn't recommended.

Modern Sailing's key point is that jams usually come from rolling the sail in loosely. To furl or reef:

• Head nearly into the wind, with the correct slight tack for your furler's rotation direction.
• Tighten the vang (or keep the boom down) to flatten the sail.
• Keep tension on the outhaul while winching in the inhaul, so the sail wraps tightly.
• If it jams, roll the sail back in a little and try again with more outhaul tension. Never grind hard on a winch to free it.

In-boom systems have their own rules about boom angle and halyard tension; follow your maker's guide closely.

On a calm day, with the bow pointing into the wind:

1. Hoist the main and take up the topping lift (if you have one) so the boom won't drop.
2. Ease the mainsheet and vang.
3. Lower the halyard to your mark and hook the luff cringle on the reef hook (or pull the luff line tight).
4. Re-tighten the halyard.
5. Haul in the leech (clew) reef line until the cringle is down on the boom and the foot is tight.
6. Ease the topping lift, then tidy the loose sail with the reef point lines, tied around the sail only, not around the boom (check with your sailmaker for your sail). Good Old Boat stresses that reef points should be tied with a reef knot only tight enough to hold the bundle: the luff and leech reef lines carry the sail's load, not the reef points.
7. Shake out the reef in reverse order: untie the reef points first, then ease the leech line, ease the luff, and hoist.

Time yourself. Do it until each person aboard can do it without help.

Note line replacements, blocks serviced, and your reefing practice dates in your BoatMend log.