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As a new owner of a 26M, I have a question regarding reefing of the mainsail. The luff of the mainsail is held in the rear of the groove in the mast by a series of slugs that slide upwardly within the groove. My question is: Where should the slugs go when you lower the main to one of the reefing points (three in my case)? In the M, there is a widened area or slot in the lower portion of the groove in the rear of the mast, just above the gooseneck, through which the slugs are inserted when the sail is being set and raised. There is also a removable "keeper" or stop member that the dealer fastened just above the slot, after the sail was raised, to keep the sail from sliding back down and keep the slugs from falling out (rearwardly) through the widened slot area. -

The problem is that when I lower the mainsail to bring one of the front reefing cringles or grommets down to be fastned onto the reefing hook near the gooseneck, the stop member (mentioned above) prevents them from sliding down past the top of the widened slot area. In other words, I can't get the luff of the sail down far enough to attach the selected reefing grommet or cringle to the reefing hook. As a compromise, I had to tie a rather long Cunningham line through the reefing grommet to hold the sail down while the sail was reefed. This didn't work well, since the slugs "bunched up" above the stop member and the resulting reefed tack was a foot or so above the level of the boom, and the foot of the sail wasn't aligned well. - I hope I have explained the problem clearly enough, but if not, let me know and I'll try again.

My question is: is the recommended solution to remove the keeper and pull the lower slugs down and out of the widened slot area so that the reefing cringle can be pulled down far enough to reach the reefing hook? If so, is it necessary to tie the lower slugs together to keep them from flying about?

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

Jim

You can remove the keeper and pull the slugs out of the groove, but that is a bit of a pain since you have to re-feed each slug when you decide to shake the reef out. A better solution is to fabricate a couple of stainless plates that cover the widened luff groove area and essentially extend the luff groove all the way down to the goosneck. This also allows you to flake the mainsail right down on the boom instead of the slugs bunching up 12" above it.

Hope this helps and happy sails, Tony


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Jim, if you have two reefing points you should only attach the cringle on the second reef. Otherwise just pull the slugs down tight against the stopper and use the outhaul line to tie off the sail.

TonyHouk wrote:Hope this helps and happy sails, Tony


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Thanks for the information. If I'm understanding the arrangment correctly, it suggests that I should get some additional slugs to ride in the groove in the back of the Mast, and attach these additional slugs to a jackline extended through the existing slugs in the lower leach of the sail, near the foot. Is this right?

Jim

Jim Cate wrote: . . . If I'm understanding the arrangment correctly, it suggests that I should get some additional slugs to ride in the groove in the back of the Mast, and attach these additional slugs to a jackline extended through the existing slugs in the lower leach of the sail, near the foot. Is this right?

"The existing slugs in the lower leach of the sail" are removed from the sail, so you don't actually use additional slugs. Instead, the jackline is rove through them and the jackline attached to the leach using "slug shackles," or simply grommets in my case. The linked photo shows slug shackles in the sail's grommets - it's a nice installation.

As a result, the lower few slugs do not attach to the sail whatsoever. This is pretty much standard procedure for your local sailmaker (assuming you _have_ a local sailmaker?).

For a temporary fix, (permanent in my case) We tie a stout string around the mast just above the cleats as a slug stop. Theres a pic of it about 1/2 way down on the Mod page on our website.

To reef I just remove the string attach the reefing cringle and retie the string.

Heres a pic of our main reefed on our Mac X.

Dont know how similar to an M it is.

Thanks for all the suggestions and web pages. I'll try several of the proposed mods.

IMO, this operation should have been clearly described in the owners manual and all the necessary rigging supplied. - If a jack line is actually necessary for convenient reefing under sail, seems to me it should have been supplied. If not, the next best recommended alternative should be explained. Seems to me that reefing is pretty basic and necessary in a boat of this size.

Jim

POST-GOPHER sucks another post from beneath the surface, leaving a thread hole!




(BTW, Scott - over-n-under works)!

As a compromise during a trip last Saturday, we removed the keeper member and let several of the slugs drop out of the widened groove. - We were then able to attach the first reefing cringle on the reefing hook near the goosneck, and then replaced the keeper member to prevent further slugs from dropping out of the widened groove. We then tightened the outhaul and fastened small lines through the reefing crincles and around the boom.

While not as convenient as the jackline described above, this, along with adjustment of the roller furling jib, seemed to do the job. The boat was sailing pretty well in moderate winds.

Jim

Jim Cate wrote:As a compromise during a trip last Saturday, we removed the keeper member and let several of the slugs drop out of the widened groove. - We were then able to attach the first reefing cringle

Jim - cheerie-O! Necessity's the mother of invention, and time on the water is the priority!