What is Reefing?

When you are sailing along on a beautiful day and dark clouds roll in, your day is about to change. White caps will begin to crop up as the wind builds, pushing you along with a stiffer breeze. The sails will take all this wind and turn it into huge amounts of power to move your yacht through the chop! At the same time, the boat will begin to lean over much further than it was before the weather changed. What do you do now?

If you have strong rigging, capable crew, and a sea worthy vessel, you can enjoy sailing along heeled over with a rail in the water. It is very exhilarating to stand on the cockpit combings as you plow your way through the seas!  

The boat won't flip from sailing heeled over very far, but it will sail much less efficiently than if it were properly trimmed. As the wind pushes you over, the sails will spill wind off the top of them as they begin to lay flat to the wind. At the same time, the keel will begin to lift out of the deep water offering less resistance towards leeway movement. The end result is the boat will lose power in its sails and begin to slide sideways as the keel loses effectiveness. 

To keep the yacht more upright, the best solution is to make the sails smaller via reefing. Reefing presents less sail to the wind, which means less power generated by the sails. This might seem like it will make you move more slowly, when in fact it will do the opposite. The wind is blowing so hard that these smaller reefed sails will generate all the power you need to move through the storm conditions. Since the sails are not overpowering the sailboat anymore, the boat will stay more upright allowing the keel to work more efficiently which allows you to move forward instead of sideways. 

Why does reefing work? Physics!

Sails present an area to the wind to form airfoils that act like wings to generate lift. This force will balance itself onto one point called the Center of Effort. This point is basically the sum of the force from the wind that is pushing on the boat. This point can be moved by trimming the sails.

If the sails are all the way up, the Center of Effort is going to be very high and will result in more heeling. If the Center of Effort is brought down, it will not have as much leverage and will result in less heeling. This point can also be moved fore and aft, depending on sail trim. If you have a jib up with no main, the Center of Effort will be forward (lee helm). If you have the main up with no jib, the Center of Effort will be aft (weather helm). 

The position of the Center of Effort will have a great effect on how the helm feels. Too far forward will result in Lee Helm, too far aft will result in Weather Helm (Lee Helm turns you towards the lee, Weather Helm turns you into the weather).

When you reef your sails, the main comes down which will move the Center of Effort down and closer to the mast. When you reef the jib (or furl it up partially) you move the Center of Effort forward. This is why Cutters perform better than sloops in heavy weather. A reefed sloop will move its Center of Effort forward while a cutter will lower its jib and fly a reefed main and staysail, which moves the Center of Effort down and closer to the mast. This keeps the helm balanced and under control in heavy weather. 

The take home message is: Reefing makes your sails smaller to maintain proper control of your vessel. This makes the heavy weather sailing much more comfortable and much less intimidating. 

Cruising vs Land Working

Since I moved aboard, it has always been a struggle to balance sailing with work. When I was in dental school, my goal was to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Whenever I looked at a boat to buy, that was the lens through which it was evaluated. Liveaboard space and creature comforts were not as important to me as its sea worthiness. 

I wanted a heavy displacement, full keel, cutter rigged sailboat. When I came across Wisdom on yachtworld, I knew I had found my new home! She was designed for ocean racing but the previous owner had fitted the interior for cruising. This seemed like a wonderful compromise between live-ability and performance. 45 feet on deck may sound roomy, but with an 11 foot beam, she is anything but that. 

The design principles at that time were simple, a narrow boat will cut through the water more easily then a wider boat. This translates into more speed which is a wonderful feature while cruising, but at the sacrifice of a lot of interior volume.

When Maddie moved aboard, the lack of interior space was brought to my attention. Maddie forgave this fault when we did our summer cruise and were able to maintain speeds of 8 and 9 knots without much effort (as long as the wind would hold). 

All these thoughts of sailing to far away places may seem fine, until you factor in my morning commute. Come Monday morning, I need to drive to work and can't be on a distant horizon. When I first bought Wisdom, my parents thought it was a phase that I was going through and within a year I would be back on land. My first year on the boat was spent learning her features and fixing the major problems. While I spoke of sailing off, Wisdom was not ready yet. After a few years of refitting, she is nearing completion and my thoughts of sailing off are being viewed as serious plans rather than pipe dreams.

Concern has been voiced about how much time I would be taking off from the office, and this is an honest concern to have. I work in a dental practice with my father, just like my father did with my grandfather (we like our family traditions). In the office I do a lot of surgical procedures that my father does not do and if I take off for an extended amount of time, who would do these surgeries?

While I understand the resistance to the thought of me packing up and shipping off, it is important to also consider it from the opposite perspective. I am young and able to ship off. I have a boat that can carry me to distant shores, exploring new lands that you can't reach by plane or car. I have made sure to keep my monthly expenses low (except for my student loans, they are not a low monthly expenditure) to allow me more time with the money I have saved up to cover my expenses while I cruise. 

The summer of 2015, Maddie and I set off on a 1 month cruise, where we set sail heading South. We sailed the Chesapeake and out into the Atlantic Ocean. We visited a few towns along the way and enjoyed every moment of it. Then we arrived from our trip and I returned to work. 

Getting up early to commute to work with a bunch of crazy drivers everyday can get very old. During the month of February 2016, I was involved in 2 distinct accidents. The first accident occurred because a guy decided to change lanes without looking and rammed into the side of my car. 11 days later, traffic slows down to a stop but one car did not and caused a 4 car pile up. Luckily I was the 4th car in the pileup and was only rear ended.

The people in the car behind mine were very high on something and the police who arrived at the scene did not care. When the three of us (me and the other two drivers) expressed concern about how high they appeared, the officers words were "Nobody died, I don't care." The officers argument was that they didn't smell like alcohol or smoke, so he didn't think they were high. I have a lot of people that come into my dental office seeking narcotics and have received special training in spotting a junkie. This person was most definitively high! 

While standing on the side of the highway waiting for the police to write up the report and listening to the junkie scream at all of us in their delirious fits of rage and confusion made me wish I was sailing with Maddie. 

When we were cruising, we would wake up in the morning, raise anchor and set the sails. There was no traffic, no crazy people riding your bumper and then rear ending you. While sailing there was only peace, nature, and tranquility. 

When people question my desires to take an extended leave from work and go sailing, I understand their perplexity to my plans. They have never experienced this feeling of peace and harmony. They have commuted to work everyday and feel that heavy traffic, accidents, and long drives are a part of everyday life! To them, this is a normal and average day. It's like asking someone to imagine a color that they have never seen, it can't be done! Once you have seen that new color though, you can't imagine what it would be like without that color in your life.

Floating Plastic Debris

I always say "The tides are constant, but what they bring never is." Sadly, the tides tend to bring a variety of garbage into the harbor. Usually it consists of plastic bottles and Styrofoam cups; we even had an entire tire and rim wash in once.

These lightweight pieces of plastic originate as litter that had been discarded in an inappropriate way, either being tossed on the side of a road, or into an overflowing trash receptacle. These debris end up being washed away with the next rainfall. To a land based observer, it may appear that the rain has washed the street clear of debris. All the trash is gone!

Trash never goes away, it simply gets relocated. The rain runoff tends to carry lightweight plastic debris off to the storm drainage system. In Baltimore, these consist of grates placed over large holes that pipe the runoff directly into the harbor. All of these pieces of plastic then float along the surface until they are washed up on the shoreline or swept out to sea to contribute to the immense trash gyres of the oceans. After a rain, the waters surface is peppered with small floating pieces of trash, slowly being carried away by the wind and current. 

After the storms pass, the water seems to clear up! All the trash has been whisked away from our immediate area and from our minds as well. The water seems cleaner and the birds more vibrant as they fly around and swim in the harbor water around the boats. Then the tide begins to come back in.

The incoming tide is not signaled by strong currents or rushing water, but rather a sea of trash approaching! As the tide returns, it also returns the trash that had been swept away hours earlier.

The ducks begin to swim more cautiously as they move between the floating waste and the seagulls take to the skies.

At high tide, we float in a sea of debris. 

Reverse Cycle Heating and Air Conditioning

Reverse cycle heating and air conditioning work just like the one in your home or apartment. You simply set a temperature and it will do its best to keep it there. 

It works wonderfully, but it does recirculate the same air. Because of this, we like to open the hatches on nice days to completely change over the air in the boat. 

One of the best features is it offers a steady air temperature in the boat. If you set it to 70F, it will get no colder than 68F and no warmer than 72F. 

This may sound like the perfect way to control the temperature of your boat, but as always there are downsides. The system will cool a boat incredibly well, but it has limitations when it comes to warming the boat.  

If the water temperature gets below 38F, the system stops heading the boat. This forces many people to fill their boats with space heaters when their only heat source stops producing.  

The other problem with winter use comes from the fact that the unit recycles the same air over and over again. Moisture in the air will build and during the colder season, condensation will form on everything. This may only seem like a minor inconvenience, but I have seen boats where every surface in the boat is sweating and a portable dehumidifier can't keep up with the demand.  

The convenient system is also a very complicated system with many places to fail. If anything stops working, the whole unit fails.  

One of the weak points in the unit is the need for constant water supply. If air gets into the water line, the flow of water will be interrupted. Air locks are very frequent issues and can be tedious to manage if you are not properly equipped.  

Reverse cycle heating and air condition units are very useful for making a boat a home, but they require constant supervision. It is not recommend that weekend boaters leave their units on all week (or longer) while they are away. If the unit runs dry and fails to shut itself down, the unit can become a fire hazard as it becomes dangerously hot. 

While this may seem like a major downfall to this unit, I can assure you that with proper care and maintenance, these units will make your boat feel like your home!  

Dealing with Tails

When you pull into a marina slip and tie up, you will find that you have long tails leading away from the cleats. This is where the dilemma on what to do with the tails comes into play. There are several common options on what to do with these tails:

Jumble mess
Coil
Chain
Stretch out
Send it back to the boat

One of the most common ways people deal with tails is they leave them as a jumbled mess. Neighboring boaters will not appreciate this method and these tangles can easily become a tripping hazard and the knots they form can become a nuisance when you need to extend the dockline in a hurry.

Coils are flat and elegant. One very common coil is called the Flemish Flake which is quick and easy to make. Passer byes will appreciate these coils because they look neat and tidy and show that you take the time to make sure your boat and all of its parts are kept in order. It's these little details that other boaters will pick up on as they make their quick judgments on your boating credibility. The problem I have found with coils is drunk boaters tend to grab the center and stretch it out. They are just doing harmless pranks on other boats, but after a few incidents, my patience grows thin for this prank.

Chains are another alternative to coils. Chains also keep the excess line in a neat and tidy package that is not as enticing to pull apart. Chains are bulky instead of flat, but can be easily tucked up to the cleat or edge of the pier. This way they are out of the way of foot traffic, yet neatly organized. Chains are easy to release in a hurry by pulling on the end, and also help with neighbors split second judgment about your boating skills. The problem with chains is if they are left in place for a long time (longer than one month), they will become stiff and are hard to pull apart. This leads us to our next option!

Stretch the lines out. By stretching the lines out along the edge of the pier, they are out of the way of foot traffic, and still relatively neatly organized. The lines are prone to falling into the water, which is why frequent inspection is crucial. If the line lives in the water, a reef will begin to live on the line. The amount of life that can form on a floating line may seem appealing to the observer, until you have to grab that part of the line. For long term docking, I personally prefer to stretch the lines out, that way when we take our dock lines with us for long trips, they don't have odd twists and kinks in them.

The last option is to send the tail back to the boat. This resolves all the problems of what to do with the docklines on the pier, but I don't see this practice done much. This only works if the dockline is excessively long, as the line needs to run the path from the boat cleat to the pier cleat and then back to the boat with enough to secure the line on deck and avoid it from falling into the water. If the line isn't long enough to reach the pier and back, this is not a viable option.

How do you manage the excess tails of your dock lines?