Installing Reefing Lines on Boom

Our friend, Brent Butikofer’s always interesting blog has a new post on installing reef lines on his SCAMP’s balanced lug. He was kind enough to share it. —Eds

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I felt like I needed to install the reefing lines on the boom before I move forward, so instead of any further delays in commitment, let’s run the actual reefing lines and settle on the actual placement of pad eyes and horn cleats. This in a sense, closes a chapter and allows my brain to move on to the next step.

I use a hole punch for accurate placement of the drill bit. If you haven’t used one of these, I highly recommend them for precise placement of hardware.

In the final hour of decision making, I elected to separate the horn cleats further than preciously discussed. Yes, now I’m just aft of the veranda top, but I felt I needed a little more room between the horns to minimize interference of the reefing lines. I also elected to slope the horns. By sloping the horns in the direction shown, I can more quickly secure the reefing lines to the horn. The angle gauge kept both angles identical. I didn’t want either horn to exceed the width of the boom, which they don’t. The photo is misleading, it’s taken at an angle.

The mock 2×4 boom served its purpose. All the holes you see represent different renditions of trial and error. I definitely over thought this step, but I wanted to try every combination possible before I committed to a system.

Here’s the final install. First reef point (which I decided to move to the 2nd reefing cringle in the sail), is color coded blue and secured directly to the 4″ horn cleats. The line runs up through the bottom of the cleat and is tied on top, as I plan to pull downward to secure the line. I settled on 4″ horn cleats because they’re big enough to handle two reefing lines per horn. The red line is tied off at the pad eyes and runs to the 3rd reefing cringle in the sail. It too will be tied off at its respective horn cleat. This is simple and intuitive.

I’ve left the reefing lines a little long at this step…I can always shorten after testing. You will also notice, I securing the reefing lines directly to the sail cringles. I see absolutely no need to run the lines back down to the boom on this size boat, which in my testing only added more friction into the lines. And, it’s a lot less line to secure. •SCA•

* As editors we should note we are sharing this post as information only, we're not necessarily endorsing this specific reefing setup. Especially with reefing systems it's important to test things in various conditions before coming to conclusions.