“Why didn’t he point the boat into the wind to raise/lower the main to avoid tangling in the lazyjacks?”
Ah, the comments section on YouTube. Normally maybe not the most productive place to spend an afternoon, but today it’s inspired me.
James the Sailor Man, solo Alberg 30 sailor of YouTube fame, joined me on our passage to Greenland last summer, and in January 2024 his five-part video series, which wonderfully documents sailing on our Farr 65 Falken, went live on his channel.
The comment came in response to a challenging moment in the wind and fog as we were reefing the mainsail. We were broad reaching on port tack, the boom eased well to starboard and secured with a preventer led through a fairlead at the bow and aft to a control winch in the cockpit. The Dyneema lazyjacks, which I’d installed a few weeks earlier to help control the bulk of the 200-pound mainsail when furled or reefed, were draped across the mainsail track, and as the sail was lowered, the cars got fouled on the windward lazyjacks. James climbed the lower part of the mast to free them.
There is a common misconception that you should turn into the wind when handling sails offshore, but this violates a cardinal rule I have about ocean sailing: Never let your sails flog in the wind. This is one area where inshore and offshore sailing techniques and education diverge. Flogging sails, even for a moment, create opportunities for cascading accidents. Bowlines or shackles holding sheets can shake loose. Heavy clew rings can knock against the boat, or worse, the crew. At the very least, the sails are going to lose a substantial amount of their useful life the more they’re shaken by the breeze.
When Matt Rutherford returned from his 309-day solo nonstop around-the-Americas voyage, the sails on his 27-foot Albin Vega looked new. I overheard people commenting that maybe he’d had them replaced for the voyage up the Chesapeake for his homecoming in Annapolis.
“I just never let them flog,” Matt said, when someone asked him directly.
Inshore, sailors are taught to round up when hoisting or reefing sails, often under power, and indeed we’ll do this on our boats when initially setting sail in a protected harbor in flat water. But as soon as you get offshore, the dynamics change. Even a calm day on the ocean produces enough waves and swell to make the motion on deck dramatically different than the flat water of a harbor, making it at best more difficult for crew handling sails and at worst dangerous. Offshore, we set the sailplan up such that it’s workable on any point of sail, even a dead run with a poled-out headsail.
Successfully doing so mostly comes down to managing friction, chafe, and catch points. With an eased boom, the mainsail is often plastered up against the standing rigging and spreaders, especially on modern boats with swept- back spreaders. You’ll often see offshore cruising boats with foam taped around the trailing edge of spreaders to mitigate the chafe from this on long downwind voyages. Fairly led halyards and reef lines with as few changes of direction as possible reduce friction.
A keen eye on the sails and rigging and a feel for the tension on things is key. Electric winches are dangerous because you don’t feel when a line is getting overloaded. Sheeting in the mainsail just enough to get the sail off the rig can help too, though the second you slack the halyard, the sail will bag out with the wind and onto the rig again. This whole process takes patience and a good setup. Downwind reefing with in-boom or in-mast furling is even trickier, with higher stakes—improperly aligned u-joints on these systems can break at sea, so make sure you read the manual and practice.
Our mistake on Falken that day was not properly offsetting the lazyjacks to clear the track. Once in Greenland, I went aloft and put pad eyes on the spreaders to accomplish this, and we haven’t had any problems in the 7,000-plus miles since.
If you’re thinking of ocean sailing, practice these reefing techniques inshore first, and get your boat set up to make this as easy as possible. Your sails will last far longer, you’ll have less drama during the reefing process, and you eliminate the domino effect of cascading errors when sails start flogging. Plus, downwind reefing keeps the boat flat and the apparent wind eased, making everything on deck easier.
April 2024