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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Reefing luff blocks

Over at Sail Delmarva, Drew is fine tuning his rig, with some home-made reef blocks:
Larger sails often come with these. While not strictly needed, I find this reduces the friction a bit



  • The long 1/4-inch shackle provides space for the webbing that a bullet block would not. Stronger too. The shackle must be just the right width (1/2-inch); some are wider and the rope could jump.
  • The webbing bit is an 8-inch climbing sling from REI, something I had retired from climbing use. You need this length to get the block clear of the luff.
  • The blocks are self-contained Harken Bullet sheaves, left over from a prior project that didn't work so well. Always recycling.
  • I did drill out the inside of the blocks just a touch. About 1/64-inch.

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