MY REEF POINT PROJECT

In a past life I spent a lot of time working with patterns and fabric construction so I thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to put a pair of reef points in my 1979 Potter 15 sails. The project turned out to be a bit more than I thought it would be and in retrospect, considering the cost of materials and the potential cost of replacing my wife’s sewing machine I think I would opt for jobbing the project out to a professional who is set up and does this task in their ordinary course of business.

If you are determined to put this “project notch” on your tiller I would highly recommend purchasing the “Jiffy Reefing Kit” sold by Sailrite.com. The kit comes with all the parts and pieces you will need and most importantly a set of written instructions. Following are some illustrations of what I encountered along the way that may help you in your decision whether or not  to take this project on.

Photo #1 – The first thing you will need to do is create two reinforcement patches for the Luff and Leech attachment points into which you will eventually set brass cringles (two sets for each reef point). Per the pattern in the photo the reinforcements are three overlapping thick nesses of cloth sewn onto the sails. Lots of stitching here.

Photo #2 – Using the patterns I used a hot knife to cut the individual reinforcement pieces. I already had the hot knife left over from a past Kite life. It allows the precision cutting of sailcloth and seals the edges at the same time. You don’t absolutely have to have a hot knife but it does make things a lot easier. Excuse the deteriorating patio table in the photo. I don’t have time for both boat and patio maintenance.

Photo #s 3 & 4 – You will need a large space to spread out your sail and determine exactly where you want your reef points. Some kind of long straight edge is needed to determine the placement of your luff, leech and sail ties. For sail ties I just sewed in a single thickness of square cloth into which a brass cringle was placed. While on the subject of brass cringles, I also have a professional setting tool but there are alternative ways to put these in with simple hand tools. Again check out the options at Sailrite.com.

Photo #5 – One of the hardest things you will have to do is keep all those thick nesses in place when you start to sew. The easiest way to keep everything from creeping or puckering is to glue it all in place before you begin to sew (all stitching should be Zig-Zag). Sewing all these thick nesses on a home machine is not easy. In the thickest areas you may have to hand walk the needle through the fabric (buy a lot of needles ahead of time). If your wife is finicky about her sewing machine it may not be advisable to let her watch?

Photo #6 – Finished project with first reef tied in. Note the reinforcement and tie points in the second reef point.

NOW, if you are not familiar with sewing and you are not completely discouraged I didn’t do my job well enough. If, on the other hand, you are well experienced in such matters, you already know what you are getting into.

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