Do away with mean reef points
I’m always pleased to be on a boat with reef points for the mainsail. Without a stack pack, tying in the reef helps you to see ahead, and it looks tidier too. On a traditional yacht with a long boom, it’s a vital part of the reefing operation. So often, though, whoever supplied the reef points never thought he’d have to tie them in 25 knots of wind. They are just too short. Remove these Toytown jokers and reeve up a new set through the eyelets provided. Tie them off either side of the sail with a single overhand (granny) knot and whip the ends. They should be long enough to tie a slipped reef knot comfortably. If it’s really blowing, make a short bowline in one end, pass the other through it and rack up the slack, finishing with a slip-knot. That’s when the extra length really pays off.
Stop the clinking
Problems with the bottles clinking every time you tack? Me too. And it gets worse, doesn’t it? However hard we try, there’s always the unspeakable fear that your prize Chateau Veryspecial 1962 is going to smash against the Cobber’s End 2023 you were only saving to take to a party anyway. Here’s a win-win solution. When you get home, empty your sock drawer and grab all those singletons that have been lurking there since last-Christmas-but-one. You’ll never find their pairs. The washing machine ate them long since. Pack them in the wine locker and slip them over the bottles as you stow them. Your worries will be over.
Is there space to anchor?
I don’t know about you, but whenever I arrive in a tight anchorage, somebody always seems to have pitched up first and planted themselves right in the middle. This summer I swept into a small, round pool in the Baltic to find nobody there. I let go at “top dead center” and savored my good fortune. An hour later a local sailed in, checked the scene, then asked, “How much cable do you have out?” I’d laid 15 fathoms (rapidly converted to, “A bit under 30 meters”). Armed with this knowledge, he knew where my hook probably was and laid his so that we swung clear of one another. A week later, someone else did the same thing. We can learn some surprising things from our Nordic cousins.
This article was originally published in the March 2026 issue.
