The summertime is undoubtedly the most enjoyable time of year for the weekend cruising sailor. Club racing, poker runs and social overnighters in a secluded anchorage are all things we look forward to when the weather turns mild and inviting. Raft ups are another experience that many of us do several times a summer so knowing proper etiquette and safety techniques are important when tying up to someone else’s boat.

If you are going to be the center boat, it’s always best to have lines fore and aft of the vessel. Tying up to an anchored buoy or piling is best but if they’re not available, set good anchors fore and aft and dive and inspect them if you’re unsure of their set. Obviously, your boat should be one of the largest boats to raft up if you intend on being the center boat. If other larger boats raft up alongside you, they’ll more than likely need to set anchors as well depending on the conditions of tide and wind. Also realize that if you are the center yacht, you’ll be the last one to leave unless you don’t mind possibly upsetting a few folks when you pull out early.

When joining a raft, take care in trying to offset your mast to the next boat to avoid masts slamming into each other in a swell or wind. When using other boats to walk to another boat, try as much as possible to walk across the foredecks. That provides more privacy to boat owners in the cockpit. Obviously, deck shoes or barefoot is the way to go so as not to scuff or mar other people’s decks. Don’t litter while crossing over and use care when transporting food or drinks. Going from deck to deck on pitching boats can sometimes be, shall we say, interesting.

Before you get to the raft up, prepare at least two sets of tie-up lines and sufficient size and number of fenders. Place fenders along the widest beam part of the boat. You should be heading into the wind when coming alongside. Have crew ready and alert the boat you want to tie up to of your intentions.Permission to tie up.is always a good, courteous move and shows respect for your new neighbor, particularly if they are strangers. Tie up fore and aft with secure cleat hitches.

Every sailor at one time or another will need to reef the mainsail. Done right, and assuming your boat is well rigged for reefing, the exercise will result in a more balanced boat in windier conditions.There are several reefing designs like slab reefing using a Jiffy Reef type system and on the more modern boats many are coming with in-mast or in-boom mainsails. To reef these types of systems it is simply a matter of cranking in the mainsail inside the mast or boom until the desired amount is left. These are easy and efficient but typically the sail shape is not as good particularly in in-mast systems since batons are not an option.

The majority of cruisers though have the traditional and time tested slab reefing. Below are a few simple points in helping you with a successful reef of your mainsail.

The mainsail should first be eased by releasing the mainsheet slowly. Make sure all the wind is spilled from the sail and the boom being supported by the topping lift. Also make sure the boom vang is eased and there is not tension on it. Some boats have solid boom vangs that hold up the boom instead of a topping lift, however.

Next, uncleat the main halyard and ease the sail down until the reef point you want is at boom level. Different boats have different number of reef points. Some have only one and others have two or three. The luff reef cringle is then pulled down by hooking it in a ram’s horn on the mast. Some boats have reef lines that can be pulled and cleated for the correct tension.The leech reef line should then be adjusted pulling the leech cringle tightly to the aft of the boom. The topping lift can now be released and the mainsail trimmed and the boom vang retightened.