Hi, I’ve just purchased a 1975 Westerly Centaur (and yes, I don’t plan on getting anywhere quickly). The boat has its original rigging including a roller-reefing boom. I would like to employ some sort of basic slab reefing type approach, but there are no reef hooks and there doesn’t appear to be an blocks on the stern end of the boom for running lines to the clew of each reef. Can I just mount all of this on the present boom and run appropriate lines? If I can mount such hardware, would I rivet it onto the boom? Or do I need to think about a new boom (I really don’t want to buy a new boom). Thanks! – Arthur
Hi Arthur: Slab reefing is easy to do. Usually a new boom would not be required. The blocks should be bolted, not riveted. And of course you will need some reef clew/tack cringles put into your mainsail.
There is some information on slab reefing in our Offshore Cruising Ency. And you will also get some good input from your local sailmaker.
Be sure to coordinate the location of the reef points in the sail with where the hardware goes.
One issue to consider with the boom. In theory, roller reefing evenly distributes the sail load along the boom (reality is usually something different). Slab reefing will point load the boom more than the roller reefing. In most cases, the boom would have the beef to handle this. But it is something you might want to get a rigger to take a quick look at. Regards – Steve Dashew
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
