MacGregorSailors.com

On cruising boats you should always reduce sail area when the wind velocity causes your boat to be overpowered. At this point, you are heeling so much that your speed has decreased and everyone on board is pretty uncomfortable.

You want to reduce sail equally between the main and jib to keep the boat balanced. So reef the main first. If the wind continues to increase and you are still overpowered, change to a smaller jib or roll the jib up partway. If the wind gets heavier, reef the main some more. If you are still not comfortable, roll up the jib or take it down. Cut and pasted from Offshore sailing news.com

So how do I roll up a hanked on jib please? I just dont understand.

You can't roll up a jib unless its on a furler. In your case, you can only hank on a smaller jib.

Must have been in they way I was reading it?? I could not imagine pulling up one of those Jib Bags / sleeves and expecting it to hold .

Roll the jib. I took the cheap option and had a sailmaker put in a set of extra reefing points for the hank on jib. So, it does in fact roll up at the bottom, and get tied in position. This reduces sail area nicely, but does take a little time to set up. Its not something we do on the run. For example, if its blowing hard and you're determined to sail, the jib is rolled up at the bottom and then hanked on using the alternate reef points.

I find this helps a lot with the tacking in stronger breezes and is much better than sailing on the main alone.

Cheers
Craig

I saw a boat with a reefed jib in a sail magazine and wished I had known about that before we put on the roller furler....the furler is great...but it does make it a bit harder to step and unstep the mast....when we were on Lake Stockton MO we had a hank on jib and used to lay the mast back to get under 2 bridges routinely without a problem....with the roller furler it wouldnt be quite as easy. Stands to reason it would be a much less expensive way to go...you would definately want to get the reef in before it got too rough out there...so maybe a jackline and a harness would also be a good idea....

Seems like that may not be very efficient as far as airflow goes. Ie, when you reef a main sail, all the bagginess is on the foot, not the leading edge (luff) of the sail like I expect would be the case of this reefed jib. I know there are two distinct religions on this, but I think the ease of the furler when cruising outweighs the extra weight which makes it more difficult to raise. And with the mast raising system, its pretty neglible except that you need to keep the furler drum from scratching the deck. That's pretty easy with practice too. As a disclaimer, my mast stays up most of the time and I'm only bringing it down a few times a year. I suppose if you were always trailering the boat, then the extra time spent with the mast raising gear could be a nuisance at the ramp. But you are certainly going to give that time back with interest when you are on the water. I can't see single handing a hanked on jib in heavy wind without an autopilot. Maybe good for racing boats with 5+ crew on board though...of course, they don't typically use hanks because of the airflow inefficiency either...they feed a luff right into a track which is more aerodynamicaly similar to a furler setup than hanks. The big advantage is that it is easier to change sails.

I dont know what you mean.. before I had a roller furler and I didnt feel like taking my jib or genoa down and if it wasn`t too windy I would unhook my jib sheet at that end of the jib.. I would just roll the jib up. When I got it rolled tight, I take a sail tie and wrap it to the forestay. I then stand on the bow rail and place another tie as high as I can reach. Its good for light air, but I dropped anchor one night and rolled the genoa up. the wind picked up, it started to unfurl the sail and flapping like crazy.

..

A nice way to reef an RF jib is to have a luff pad added to the sail. The best time to do this is when getting a new sail, but I believe a sailmaker can put one on an existing sail. This allows for the jib to retain much better shape when roller reefed, a great feature for those who sail in heavy air.

Agree with Eric about reefing or trying to roll an hanked-on jib. Seems like too much that can go wrong and too little benefit. That's why they have storm jibs.

Leon

Cost me Aussie 100 dollars to add the reef points on the jib. Works just fine - rolled at the foot.

Craig

Works just fine, until you get into the conditions where it doesn't.

If you need to be regularly reducing foresail area, get a storm-jib.

had a sailmaker put in a set of extra reefing points for the hank on jib.

Is there multiple clews on this setup, if not the geometry would change too much to be useable. Ive never heard of this.