Page 400 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

MANAGING SAILS Eyesplice into the end, just big enough to fit over the
cleat it belays to, and at a length that will keep this
Wires, ropes, pendants, clewlines, magazines, oh my! adjustment when the splice is slipped over the cleat.
When it’s time to reef, just take the eye off and haul.
Reefing Pendants
Wire-and-rope halyards are desirable because they Hasse’s Octopus Magazine
are cheaper, lighter, longer-lived, and present less Next to a downhaul, the single greatest low-tech
windage than most all-rope alternatives. They are jib-taming tool is an item called a “magazine.” It’s
also extremely inelastic, which means they maintain a piece of wire rope or Spectra with an eye in either
consistent luff tension for optimal sail shape. end, and with wooden or plastic disks fixed in place
Ordinarily, the splice is located just above the near each eye. After lowering the sail, you clip one
winch. But when the sail is reefed, more rope is end of the magazine to a deck eye and the other end
exposed, and rope is relatively elastic. With a deep either to an eye on the pulpit or to the sail’s halyard.
reef, halyard tension can be compromised, result- You then take the sail hanks off the stay one at a
ing in a light-air sail shape (baggy, center of effort time and hank them to the magazine. No fumbling,
moved aft) when you least need it. no wrestling, no getting two-thirds of the hanks off
So, for deep reefs and storm trysails, consider the stay and losing the whole works to leeward in a
making up a wire rope pendant that will compen- malicious gust or wave.
sate for the loss of luff length when reefed (Figure During a Pacific cruise, sailmaker extraordi-
12-11). Always shackle the pendant to both sail and naire Carol Hasse came up with a magazine refine-
halyard before releasing the regular halyard shackle, ment called an “Octopus.” It’s a strip of 1-inch
so you don’t risk losing the halyard. A lighter and (25-mm) webbing the length of the sail’s foot, one
easier-to-store pendant can be made from one of end of which is sewn to the top loop of the mag-
the “exotics,” like Technora or Spectra, if you know azine. Three-quarter-inch (19 mm) strips of web-
how to splice them. Nowadays you might have a bing, long enough to function as sail ties, are sewn
"rope-to-rope" halyard, with a length of HM rope to the long piece at about 2-foot (0.6 m) intervals
instead of wire. With this construction you can still (see Figure 12-13). You can vary this spacing, mak-
use a pendant, but you can also just make the HM ing the crosspieces closer together where the sail is
portion long enough that it is still on the winch when bulkiest. If the sail will typically be left on deck for
the sail is reefed. some time, you can also space the ties so that they
coincide with stanchions, chocks, or other deck gear
Tidy Boom you can tie to.
If a reef clewline belays to a boom, adjust it so that it’s Make a different-colored magazine for each sail,
a bit slack when the sail is fully hoisted. Then put an to make sorting easier, and either leave them on deck
or in the sailbag while the sail is up. If you always
Figure 12-12. Tidy boom. leave the sail on deck, it’s a simple step to make an
Octopus Magazine House of acrylic cloth.

Topping Lift/Outhaul
Here’s an excellent small-boat innovation that
reduces end-of-boom clutter for a wooden boom.
The outhaul sheave is let into the end of the boom,
and its axle serves as a bolt for the bail that the
topping lift attaches to.

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