Reefing from where you sit

On the Sniper, the Nokta and the U530 I’ve chosen the same kind of rig, for the same reasons. On a small boat, leaving your seat to reef upsets the balance — and that’s dangerous at sea in a blow. The value of shortening sail easily only becomes clear when the wind is up.

Beyond the handling, sleeving the luff over the mast makes a simple “soft wing” — among the most efficient sail shapes there is. With no shrouds or stays, there’s less windage and nothing for an eased sail to snag on and put you in trouble.

A sail wrapped around the mast doesn’t lose its shape the way a genoa does when it furls around the forestay, so reducing area costs little pointing ability. In fresh air a turn or two flattens the sail and tidies the twist, and trimming stays easy. In my videos, anything over 20 knots is sailed with the sail wrapped a turn or two — enough to take the excess power, and the heel, out of her.

The page here shows Marchaj’s laboratory work: a sail of this type proved both faster and able to point higher than a Bermudan rig.