The following slides are excepts from the Boat Handling & Sail Trim seminar.

Using this technique, the mainsail is reefed by first pulling the boom up towards the leech reef cringle and then lowering the halyard which lowers the boom again. This is a very safe technique when reeefing under sail because the boom stays far from the water, even when heeled. It is also a great technique when the boat does not have a topping lidt to hold the boom up when the halyard is lowered. To use this technique, your boom vang must be long enough to allow the end of the boom to rise until it is about 12 inches from the leech reef cringle.

 

When a boat is overpowered, it is both slow and hard to handle. Ducking a starboard tack boat can be impossible if the mainsail is not eased WAY OUT. Depending on how much wind there is, reefing might be the right thing to do to get the boat back under control.

There is an eye strap on the port side of the boom between the two turning blocks (not shown above) which the jiffy reef line should also run through…