In theory, I like the idea of reefing my Hobie 16. My old boats have the reef points on the sails and the reef slugs on the halyard. -But I worry about the risk of damage to the sails.

To refresh my concerns, I dug out my old Hobie 16 Assembly Manual (Part No. 2345-000 Revised 7-80, copyright December 1980, Price $4.00) This is a seperate manual, not the assembly manual that comes with the boat. On pages 24, & 25, it shows some nice pictures on reefing. But the reefing instructions still leave me with concerns about risk to the mainsail. Since I live on a lake, its just easier for me to wait for a less windy day.

But still, I am curious about reefing. If I ever get an extra, old blown out sail, I would then try it. It then would be good to have an extra boom for that extra sail. But with all this extra stuff, it might be more practical to have a sailmaker modify the sail to the size of a reefed sail, and use it as a storm sail. The storm sail would have continous attachment to the boom, instead of being held at just four reef points.

It may be that, on a Hobie 16, the reef points are about as useable as the boom vang. -They are good conversation pieces, while drinking beer.