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Ensign Sailing Forum

Cunningham and reefing line rigging
It used to be common to reef the main, but the smaller jibs made it over kill and mostly raced so the reefing went away. If your delivering over some distance it might be nice to have, 

Zeke

Understood. 
Thank you.
S

The reef line is tied to the boom like all reef lines in the proper fashion slowing them to  move back under tension towards the cheek block at the boom end
When reefed the line hangs on itself coiled up and elephant ear hung.

I assume that the cheek blocks are for the clew. With the horn cleats forward how do you control the loose reef lines along the boom?
Much appreciated.
Sandy

We use 1149 for teaching ASA 101 in Saint Augustine 
We have two reef cheek blocks on the stb side of the boom and horn cleats stbd boom about three feet from the goose neck we simply clip the tack to the gooseneck with a soft shackle and shackle
We are able to get a flat footed reef quickly this way 
We are able to heave to on stbd tack and reef or just sail close hauled on the jib and reef too maintaining stbd tack
We are not racing and often have very little weight with small inexperienced sailors 
So the reefing really helps.
Also this method reduces the amount of flogging in gusts and improves sail life.
I don’t often use reef 2 because even though the boat is perfectly capable of sailing upright in 25knots our water gets short standing waves due to strong currents that make for a wet ride at any thing over 20 knots this is a huge distraction for the poorly dressed new students.
While our Ensign can be absolutely thrilling full sail 20 plus we find that most folks don’t want this kind of thrill the first or second day on a sail boat.

Interesting. I was sailing in a 15-20 knot breeze and reefing made it much more manageable.
Sandy

Ensigns typically do not have reefing lines.


Robert L. King
872 N. Reeve Rd. 
Dataw Island, SC
502 330 9910

Hi Rick.
Can you send a picture when convenient?
Thank you. 
Sandy

Hi Sandy,

We’ve rigged a very simple 2:1 block/ cleat which just shackles to the vang bale on the mast. It works great, not the most accessible for a crew on the rail, but very easy to rig and derig. I found this on Amazon, Harken has a similar one too. 

Best wishes, 
Rick Doerr 
Platypus #1231

I am new to the Ensign design and need to rig cunningham (down haul) and reefing lines on the boom and mast.

Can some one please provide some pictures and descriptions of what you have done?

Thank you.

Sandy Burton

#203 Flo

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