The Guys and Girls at SailFirst's kid club had a busy day last Saturday, first they finished off cleaning their Optimist dinghies, before settling down to tieing the sails onto the spars. The main skill required was the ability to be able to tie a reef knot sometimes known as a square knot because when tied correctly it is square shaped. to start with a few tied granny knots which do not look square and are very difficult if not impossible to to untie when they are pulled tight. The reason for using reef knots is because often you need to adjust the sail ties to get the best performance from the sails and also for travelling.

               Granny Knot

Each rig required some 17 reef knots to be tied and even one of pupils who was in danger of picking up the nickname "Granny" managed to complete the task.

The final requirement was to remove the masts and booms from the sails. and there were gasps of "oh no" until it was explained that the mast could be slid of the luff of the sail with the removal of only 3 sail ties. Sliding the boom from the foot of the sail was a little more tricky as they had to contend with the boom bridle.