Blue Heron
Member
Two of my planned adventures for my Sunfish include long (ok... long for a Sunfish, anyway ) voyages along the northern Gulf Coast from Dog River (on Mobile Bay) to New Orleans, and then later from Dog River to Appalachicola Florida. Both of these trips will involve short hops on semi-open waters. I am a very experienced sailor, but I have some reservations about the amount of sail a Sunfish carries and it's lack of reefing points. While I do enjoy the lively performance of my boat in sheltered waters, I'd hate to get caught in a squall very far away from land (more than a mile or so) without some ability to shorten sail. This is especially important since a few spots along the coast where I'll be going are devoid of safe places in which to take shelter.
Attached are two photographs of lateen rigs set up for reefing which were posted by Todd Bradshaw (a very clever guy) on the WoodenBoat forum. They show exactly what I'm thinking about adding to my cruising sail. As you can see, the reef consists of a pie-shaped section taken out of the lower part of the sail, and then possibly some adjustment of the gooseneck fore and aft to keep the CE in close to the right position. I would not use the jib, of course.
To my simple way of thinking, this might work just fine for those rare instances when I run into a spot of bad weather on my trip. What are your thoughts on the idea? Has anyone here done a true reef on their lateen sail?
Attached are two photographs of lateen rigs set up for reefing which were posted by Todd Bradshaw (a very clever guy) on the WoodenBoat forum. They show exactly what I'm thinking about adding to my cruising sail. As you can see, the reef consists of a pie-shaped section taken out of the lower part of the sail, and then possibly some adjustment of the gooseneck fore and aft to keep the CE in close to the right position. I would not use the jib, of course.
To my simple way of thinking, this might work just fine for those rare instances when I run into a spot of bad weather on my trip. What are your thoughts on the idea? Has anyone here done a true reef on their lateen sail?