How to Reef Sails Single-Handed | Sailing Tranquilo Around the World

In our latest How To sailing video, El looks at how to reef sails single-handed, a useful skill when you're alone on night watch.

One key element of reefing is: as soon as we think we should reef-in, we do. As soon as we think it's time to reef-out, we make ourselves a cup of tea, take an hour to see what the weather is doing, and then if it's looking good we shake out the reef.

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[nunoelias]

As a sugestion I would recommend to ease the kicker so the boom can move a little upwards when reefing. This will allow higher tension on the reefed sail later on.

[joecoleman]

great stuff. Would look a lot more professional if you had a life jacket on. WTF

[yojimbos]

Does this procedure assume a single line reefing system? It seems so as there was no mention of tightening up the clew. Sorry to point out the obvious- I've crewed on an Island Packet 32 with a single line reefing system and it's a joy- most of the keel boats I sail don't have that rig set and it's a bit more work. Nicely done on your boat.

[robertnixon]

Nice job! Clean and smooth with an excellent discription! Best "how to" video!

[julesmoto]

Forgot to say that you have single line reefing otherwise there are a lot more steps. Even your single line reefing must be set up very well because mine doesn't work very well at all to the extent that I don't use it. Same boom as yours too yours

[ianb]

Strategy I use is to always use as little of the sail as I can get away with, not as much as I can get away with; never entering night time unreefed. But I mostly single hand (currently in Panama) and my reefing all happens at the mast and those together, heavily influence my judgement there. I like how you point out easing the main until it starts to luff because that's all you need to take the load out of the sail. But something I've found that with my reefing lines being 12mm, winching on that 3rd reef is nigh on impossible - unless I wind it mostly on but then ease the kicker to bring the boom more up to the sail than the sail down to the boom; the reefing line just won't slide through the cringle with too much tension.´ Then I bring the tensions back on and I end up with a flatter sail.

[elroncubano]

I find de powering by only letting the main and boom out and putting a reef in without turning into the wind at least slightly means it’s hard to keep sail off the spreaders or lazy jacks as it comes down unless you get everything absolutely perfect

[awa]

That's all good. However, my boat has the reefing pennant on the boom near the mast, plus you need to hook on the ram's horns. And it's a laminate sail, no stack pack, no lazy jacks. Not so easy single handed.

[nicolascopp]

No use of the gooseneck or folding extra sail to the clew. It's a job 1/2 done

[paulklebaum]

Appears that one can rest peacefully when you're on the helm!👍😃