Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 05, 2003 at 22:48:31 from 195.93.32.8 user ACB.
In Reply to: English Reef Points? posted by Alex Forbes on August 05, 2003 at 19:01:47:
Splice for whip, I fancy. I had never noticed that!
Never seen a splice in a reef point.
The received wisdom, on the right hand side of the Atlantic, is that sailmakers usually stitch the line to the sail just below the eyelet, whipping the ends in the usual way, and yachtsmen were at one time (in the days of cotton sails) advised that this was a poor method, as it tends to tear the sail - yachtsmen were urged to put a figure of 8 knot each side of the eyelet. I have done this myself, thirty years ago, but I have not seen a recent example.
The only reef point oddity that I can think of is that by long tradition, fishermen on the East Coast of England tied their points in using a reef knot with both ends slipped, aka a bow.