Hi all, Just thought I'd share a dumb mistake I made in case anyone out there doesn't reef very often and might learn from it when the time comes.
I went out on Sunday with a few friends in heavy air, with the main fully reefed to the second reef points. I don't keep lines in my reef points so I use the sail ties to strap them down when I reef. This time, I wasn't thinking and tied the straps around the whole boom - including the main sheet. We were sailing upwind with no need to let out the sheet so I didn't notice the problem until we tried to turn down and head home, and it wouldn't go out. And to make matters slightly worse, we lost a canvas winch cover overboard in the process and weren't able (didn't try) to go back for it with the sheet jammed. It was easy enough to retie the straps correctly but it took a little while and we were lucky to have plenty of open water to do it and no really urgent need to bear down. Lesson learned: make sure to tie the reef point lines inside the sheet. (The other mistake that I'm now realizing that I made was cinching the straps tight. Better to tie them loose just to keep everything together, since those mid-sail reef points aren't reinforced to take load.) Sam 35-3 SF
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