How to Hoist and Reef a Catamaran Main Sail

With their high roach, the mainsails on multihulls require the helmsman to be perfectly head to wind before hoisting.

1 Untie the lazy-bag or remove the boom cover.	2 If necessary, unfasten the short ropes holding the sail.
3 Connect the halyard snapshackle to the mainsail headboard; check the passage of the halyard through the lazy-jacks.	4 Remember to tie the top of the lazy-bag to avoid it getting caught in a rope.
5 If necessary, release and slack the reefing lines.	6 Release the main sheet.
7 Check that the main sheet has enough slack.	8 Bring your boat head to wind; to do so, keep an eye on the instruments (the wind vane). You can then take up the halyard.
9 When facing the wind, you will be able to hoist; you will save time by hoisting it as much as possible by hand.	10 Carefully watch the passage of the battens in the lazyjacks. Keep head to wind until the sail is completely hoisted.
11 When the effort becomes too difficult, crank the winch a few times, and finish hoisting the sail to the top of the mast. If you use an electric winch, it is preferable to finish using a crank; it may be hard to determine the true force.	12 The sail is now hoisted, so you can fall off and start to sail.
13 You can slack the topping lift.	14 Remember to adjust the lazy-jacks.
15 You’ll be able to coil your halyard properly.

How to Reef the Main Sail Upwind

1 You are sailing upwind; the mainsail is fully hoisted.	2 You start by taking up the topping lift.
3 Then slack the mainsail traveler.	4 The mainsail traveler is loose.
5 Slack some of the mainsail sheet.	6 Tighten the mainsail halyard a bit to release the cleat.
7 Open the halyard cleat.	8 At the mastfoot, keep one turn on the winch, and let the sail fall to the level of the first reef.
9 Hook your reef.	10 Tighten your halyard again.
11 Now tighten in and secure the clew at the end of the boom.	12 Take up the traveler.

1 You are now sailing with one reef.	2 You are sailing downwind, mainsail high, and you want to lower it. Begin by bringing the traveler in. Watch out: it is very important to block the traveler in both directions at all times!
3 Take up the sheet.	4 Until it is tightly sheeted.
5 Slack the leeward lazy-jacks.	6 Now steer your boat until you find yourself on the verge of gibing. Often, an automatic pilot controls the boat better than an inexperienced helmsman.
7 Come to the mastfoot and slack the mainsail halyard.	8 If the sail does not drop, don’t hesitate to pull on it to help it drop. You can then slack the traveler, the sheet, and continue sailing.

If there is too much wind force on the sails, the maneuver may be risky; hence the interest in not waiting too long to reef. If the sail resists to dropping, sharply tighten the sheet. In most cases, the sail drops when the halyard slackens.

Article was taken with permission from the March issue of Multihulls Magazine.

This article was taken with permission from Multihulls World Multihulls World is published every other month. Website: www.multihulls-world.com Phone: +33 (0)4 92 09 16 18