Slab reefing

I am a great believer in slab reefing, simple and effective.  A number of boats I have sailed on over the years have been fitted with the correct number of cringles on their mainsails, for reeving pennants and for securing a reef’s tack to the rams horn; but not all have had sufficient sheaves in the boom to take lines for the clew outhaul, a hardener and 3 reefs.  I was following a thread the other day on an internet forum, and someone came up with the idea of reeving the pennants through blocks which could be moved up the leach for the third reef to be taken in.  The author of this idea concluded with the point “just a shackle to move”.  I wonder if a snap shackle would make this idea a lot easier to set up?  I suspect that there is a danger with such a system, that if the reef is not taken in early enough, there will be a risk of flogging sail with a block attached to it to try to tame.  Worst still, the reefing pennant adrift with a flogging block to retrieve.  I wonder if anyone has used this system and would like to comment on the idea?

Rigging failure

How many skippers have run through in their mind what to do if they have a rigging failure and a shroud parts? I am a great believer in the “what if?” syndrome and always talk through the possible emergencies when teaching. One needs to be careful about being a doom and gloom merchant, but if crew have been talked through the major dangers of fire, explosion, man overboard, collision, grounding, mast down and abandon ship in a sensible and balanced fashion, they will be encouraged to follow the same guidelines when chartering or owning themselves. How many owners have a set of bulldog clips on board? A range of sizes to cover repair of stays and shrouds, cable controlled wheel steering systems and suchlike should be included in the inventory of the prudent boat owner. This way, if a check of standard rigging is made, a potential fracture may be spotted in sufficient time to rig the bulldog clips and prevent a serious accident happening. On a recent delivery trip, I was inspecting the standing rigging, prior to leaving, through binoculars and noticed from the deck that the wire halyard to the headsail was more than 50% chafed through. A quick hand swage repair prevented what could have been a serious incident.