# Lazy jacks



## southwindphoto (Sep 4, 2009)

As many of you know I recently purchased a Morgan 35 MK 2.. 

The boat came with Lazy Jacks, and after using them for several days at sea, I wonder if they are more trouble than they are worth. 

Having to head into the wind to raise the sail, and for the most part they make it hard to lower the main sail in a stiff thunderstorm wind.

What’s your opinion?

Should I keep or ditch them.


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## JimsCAL (May 23, 2007)

You should always head into the wind to raise and lower the main, lazy jacks or not. Give them a try for some period. You will probably get used to the technique. They may also need some adjustments to make them work better. A Dutchman system is better, but more expensive.


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## FSMike (Jan 15, 2010)

Why don't you just move them out of the way for a while, and see if you prefer it without them?


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## ffiill (Jul 15, 2010)

My boat is fitted and I hate them!-boat spent one winter out on its mooring and all the lines which were still attached were wrapped around the mast


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## paul323 (Mar 13, 2010)

As with everything, it is a compromise.

I like the way they hold my sail together when I drop it single-handed. The key word is single-handed; if I regularly had a crew - a couple of hands to flake the sail as it came down - I wouldn't need them.

I hate the way there are all these thin lines flopping all over the place, or messing up the shape of my main, or simply tangling up with everything they can and getting in the way.

But I still have 'em - because, as I said, I can drop the sail quickly and easily without it spreading over the deck.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

I love the lazy jacks on my boat, but the setup I have allows me to fully retract the lazy jacks when sailing, so that they don't get in the way of raising the main, affect its shape, or chafe the sail.


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## DwayneSpeer (Oct 12, 2003)

I too only deploy the lazy jacks when lowering the sail. The rest of the time they are secured along side the mast and boom.


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## ffiill (Jul 15, 2010)

You know it never crossed my mind that I can lower my lazyjacks!-seriously!
I inherited them without instructions.


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## TQA (Apr 4, 2009)

Do you have full length battens?

If yes try lubricating the sail track so that they fall as freely as possible. 
That makes it more likely that you get a neat stack inside the lazy jacks.

However I agree that having to be exactly head to wind to avoid a snag when I hoist the main is a mega PITA. I slacken of the main sheet so I get some wiggle room but if motoring under autopilot I often have to go back and adjust the courseor if at anchor wait till it swings head to wind or near enough. 

Still I like my lazy jacks and Mack stack pack.


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## PalmettoSailor (Mar 7, 2006)

I just installed a Mack Pack lazy jack/sail bag system on my boat and I'm loving it. As others have point out there are some issues you'll have to work around but for us its a more than fair trade off. With just the wife and I dropping, flaking, securing and covering the sail was a 15 minute process that often resulted in a wrestling match with the sail and often a shouting match with the spouse. With the Mack Pack, dropping and stowing the sail is a 5 minute job for one person and if you just needed the sail down in a hurry it could be done a lot faster.

The system is designed so the jacks can be lowered and affixed at the gooseneck and the bag rolled down along the boom, so there is zero chafe or interference. I would only bother if I was on a long distance sail or was racing but its nice that you can.


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## paul323 (Mar 13, 2010)

Sailingdog - always enjoy your posts - could you provide a little more detail on your setup? My lazyjacks have a cleat on the mast (a bit above the gooseneck), up to a block, then down to the boom splitting twice to have 4 attachment points on each side. What bugs me most is the mast slap when the main is stowed (I have a nice shiny black mast...)


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## dhays (Jul 9, 2010)

TQA said:


> However I agree that having to be exactly head to wind to avoid a snag when I hoist the main is a mega PITA. I slacken of the main sheet so I get some wiggle room but if motoring under autopilot I often have to go back and adjust the courseor if at anchor wait till it swings head to wind or near enough.


I have this problem of snagging my top battens on the jack lines when raising the sail. The problem is that when my father installed the lazy jacks, he installed a system with only two lines on a side (should have had at least three), and he attached them too high on the mast (should have been at least 6 feet lower). With more lines attached lower on the mast, there would have still been enough lines far enough after to catch the main, yet the upper part of the lines would have been forward enough to not allow the aft end of the battens to catch the jack lines. A drawing would be an easier way to explain.










OK, lousy sketch, but the image on the left is roughly what my boat has now, what it should have is on the right. Before I decided to sell the boat, I was going to install a stack-pack and redo the jack-stay layout to solve that problem.

Dave


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

paul323 said:


> Sailingdog - always enjoy your posts - could you provide a little more detail on your setup? My lazyjacks have a cleat on the mast (a bit above the gooseneck), up to a block, then down to the boom splitting twice to have 4 attachment points on each side. What bugs me most is the mast slap when the main is stowed (I have a nice shiny black mast...)


My setup looks like this:










The lazy jacks and the furling system were installed at the same time. Basically, I installed four padeyes on each side of the boom, with the outermost padeyes about a foot in from each end, and evenly spaced.

I then tied the base of the lazyjack legs to the padeyes and put a stainless steel rigging ring on the blue and magenta lines that the yellow line is tied to. The yellow line has a rigging ring on it and the cyan line is tied to that and run up to a block at the spreaders and then down to a cleat at the gooseneck.

I also ran a piece of 1/4" shock cord through the padeyes on both sides of the boom and tied it off with stopper knots. On one side I added a plastic hook between each pair of padeyes. This gives me a bungee cord with three hooks and a bungee cord. To furl/stow the sail, I simply reach over the flaked sail and grab the cord and attach it to the hook on the cord from the other side. This keeps the mainsail neatly bundled and prevents it from dropping off the boom. There are no sailties to lose or drop.

The cyan lines are long enough that eventually, I will run them back to the cockpit with a line rigged to drop the lazy jacks.


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## southwindphoto (Sep 4, 2009)

I think my main problem is the top line of the lazy jacks are attach to the mast to high up which if not “exactly” in to the wind cause the sail to get snagged when rising. 

If the winds have picked up, (like just before entering a thunderstorm) the same problem then comes in play when lowering.

As seen in sailingdog diagram, the idea of lowering the point of where the top of the lazy jacks attach to the mast may be worth checking in to.

What do you think?


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## PalmettoSailor (Mar 7, 2006)

The Mack Pack setup is somewhat unusual and I haven't seen it anywhere else. Its similar to Sailingdogs set up except on my boat, the yellow line is terminated on the boom, and the green line runs from the cheek blocks on the mast to cleats on the boom somewhat behind where the forward end of the red line terminates on Sailingdogs diagram. That gives 4 containment points for the complexity of 3. The process to lower is the same as if the main line was run along side the mast but in the case of the Mack Pack they do double duty, both allowing the jacks to be lowered and helping contain the sail while when run along the mast as is commonly done, they only allow the jacks to be lowered.

There is a good diagram on the Mack Sails website. It would be a decent system to copy if you were going to build your own.


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## dhays (Jul 9, 2010)

southwindphoto said:


> I think my main problem is the top line of the lazy jacks are attach to the mast to high up which if not "exactly" in to the wind cause the sail to get snagged when rising.


That is the primary problem with the installation of the lazy jacks on my boat. An easy way to test this is to take a piece of line and go up the mast just a little. Tie the line to the top starboard line (the aft green one in SD's diagram), around the front of the mast and tie it to the port line. Use a knot that won't tend to slide up and you can even seize the end of the line to the jack line to keep it from slipping. This will have the same effect of lowering the attachment point on the mast. Then raise and lower the sail under various conditions and see if that solves the problem. If so, then all you have to do is lower the fittings on the mast.

Dave


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## TQA (Apr 4, 2009)

midlifesailor said:


> The system is designed so the jacks can be lowered and affixed at the gooseneck and the bag rolled down along the boom, so there is zero chafe or interference. I would only bother if I was on a long distance sail or was racing but its nice that you can.


I may have to RTFM in that case. I bought the boat with the Mack Pack installed and never thought of doing that.

It is clearly a good idea on longer passages. At the moment I just slacken the leeward string to stop the lines rubbing on the sail.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

I have to say that I do like the look of the Dog's setup including the idea of the shock for sail ties. 

Ours is currently a three point setup and we have experienced the usual problems of battens catching when raising and mucking up the flake as they fall.

Played around with it a bit on the weekend and am convinced enough to give it a try. Not much to do other than drill a few holes and rivet the eyes to the boom. Existing lines will be fine with the addition of a few metres for the fourth point. 

SD......would you do anything differently if you were redoing you setup ?

Paul323.....we have an additional padeye on the underside of our spreaders which holds the jackline away from the mast. Works well. I think it would be even better if it was a small block.

DHays.....I've been playing with something else to stop the battens snagging. Did I get the idea here or somewhere else ? I don't recall, but I've attached lines from each of the battens (leach end of course) to the topping lift which serve to act as guides as the main is raised or lowered.

No pics yet but I should have some next week.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

TDW—

Nope, system works great. Might choose different line than I did though. The stuff I used is not as soft as I'd like. I've got a spool of 600' of 1/4 double braid aboard that I might switch to.


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## mccary (Feb 24, 2002)

I have a set of Lazy Jacks on my Cat 27. I do have some problems, when raising the sails I must watch to make sure that the top battens don't snag on the upper line. Also when lowering they tend to be sluggish. I cured that by adding a small line attached to the head board of the main to pull down the sail when lowering. It makes it certain that the sail is down and a quick cleating prevents any wind gusts from raising the sail. It is not a perfect system, but it helps keep me in the cockpit and off the foredeck when the wind is up.


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## doubleeboy (Jul 21, 2008)

If you retract the lazy jacks after the sail is flaked you have no problems with raising sail and battens catching. 2 clips on mast are all that is needed to retract the lazy jacks. I am amazed at the number of boats that don't have them or know to use them. 

michael


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## JonnyQuest (Apr 27, 2010)

*SailingDog, do you have a way to retract your jacks?*



doubleeboy said:


> If you retract the lazy jacks after the sail is flaked you have no problems with raising sail and battens catching. 2 clips on mast are all that is needed to retract the lazy jacks. I am amazed at the number of boats that don't have them or know to use them.
> 
> michael


SD,

did you add a retracting line as well? How is it set up? Yours is a home made setup, right?


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

No, I haven't added a retracting line. I'm still trying to figure out how best to do that. It is a homemade setup of my own design.


JonnyQuest said:


> SD,
> 
> did you add a retracting line as well? How is it set up? Yours is a home made setup, right?


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## doubleeboy (Jul 21, 2008)

JonnyQuest said:


> SD,
> 
> did you add a retracting line as well? How is it set up? Yours is a home made setup, right?


Ours is a Harken set up, not home made. On the mast are two small cleats to tie off the port and starboard side of the lazyjacks. They look just like most every other lazyjack set up. The difference is when we are done flaking sail, we untie the line going up mast , and pull the lazy jacks into the mast and hook them behind the hook and then retie line around cleat. Very slick set up and simple, the bottom part of lazy jack, which actually catches the sail, is then pulled up under the boom. It seems to me any typical Lazyjack type set up could be made retractable with the addition of the two small clips to the mast.

Hope this helps, I think this might be displayed on Harken sight.

michael


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

By choice I'd like to not have to retract the lazy jacks. Its just one more thing that has to be done and hey, maybe I'm just a lazy old fart. 

The times when I have retracted the lines I simply hook them around the reefing horns. Don't see why you'd need anything more complicated than that. 

I kind of figure that going sail cover instead of boom bag was a mistake on my part but having done so, once I have these lazy jacks set up to my satisfaction I'm going to have slits cut into the cover to go around the lines.


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## southwindphoto (Sep 4, 2009)

doubleeboy said:


> Ours is a Harken set up, not home made. On the mast are two small cleats to tie off the port and starboard side of the lazyjacks. They look just like most every other lazyjack set up. The difference is when we are done flaking sail, we untie the line going up mast , and pull the lazy jacks into the mast and hook them behind the hook and then retie line around cleat. Very slick set up and simple, the bottom part of lazy jack, which actually catches the sail, is then pulled up under the boom. It seems to me any typical Lazyjack type set up could be made retractable with the addition of the two small clips to the mast.
> 
> Hope this helps, I think this might be displayed on Harken sight.
> 
> michael


makes since.. I'll give it a try... many thanks

Steven


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## gershel (Feb 4, 2001)

When I bought my catamaran, 13 years ago, it came with lazyjacks. HATED them. Installed a Dutchman system, and never looked back. 
Most of my sailing is done single-handed, and the ability to drop the sail quickly, regardless of wind direction, is worth every penny I paid for it.
The only drawback is, there is no way to retro fit a stack pack type cover.
Marc


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

It might be of interest to have a look at this post from 2001..

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance-articles/19948-dutchman-vs-lazy-jacks-pros-cons.html



> *Dutchman vs. Lazy Jacks Pros and Cons*
> 
> As a way of educating the sailing consumer, the manufacturer of The Dutchman System offers the following analysis of his product relative to lazy jacks.
> * Lazy Jacks Vs. The Dutchman System*
> ...


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

The miss the point about the dutchman system chafing the sails... which does appear to be more of an issue than with properly designed lazyjacks.


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## southwindphoto (Sep 4, 2009)

Any photos or diagrams of The Dutchman System? Many thanks for the idea.

What is it.. how does it work.. is it bette in wind?


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## Bene505 (Jul 31, 2008)

We have a Doyle Stack-pack with lazy jacks built into it. I love it. It makes it so easy to lower the sail. Funny this thread is here now, I was just messing with it in the twilight tonight, adjusting it/sliding it aft a bit so the head piece is more snug.

I usually don't mess with them when raising the sail, since we always head into the wind when raising and you just need to keep an eye on your battens when raising it. (When solo, I sometimes use the autopilot and engine to maintain course into the wind. Usually I raise the main while still on the hook.) [edit: I loosen them when underway.]

It has slits in the correct place at the bottom, so I can leave the 2 reefing lines setup with bowlines around the boom.

From this thread, now I know what the straps are for that are inside the stack pack next to the boom -- probably for rolling it up on an extended sail.

Regards,
Brad
From the cockpit


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

southwindphoto said:


> Any photos or diagrams of The Dutchman System? Many thanks for the idea.
> 
> What is it.. how does it work.. is it bette in wind?


Doyle Sailmakers: Dutchman

I'm still thinking that a boom bag system ala Doyles StackPack is the best option overall. I was put off from going that way because supposedly the bag can be noisy under sail. Seems that this is not really the case. ymmv.


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

sailingdog said:


> The miss the point about the dutchman system chafing the sails... which does appear to be more of an issue than with properly designed lazyjacks.


SD...Doyle themselves say that chafe is not really a problem in their comparision of Stackpack v Dutchman.


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## legarots (Jun 9, 2009)

Is there anything that combines dutchman reefing with a stackpack like cover?


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## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

legarots said:


> Is there anything that combines dutchman reefing with a stackpack like cover?


Gershel posted earlier in the thread that "there is no way to retrofit a stack pack type cover".

Why this is so I have no idea other than a suspicion that maybe it has something to do with the way a dutchman flakes the sail.

Maybe Gershel could explain.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

Old thread, but I have been dealing with lazy Jack's on my new boat and have found them incredibly frustrating.

I was actually kind of excited about them because I thought they made a lot of sense- but in practice, they are driving me nuts. 

I have been lowering my mast a lot due to low bridges. Lazy Jack's get snarled on everything when I try to raise the mast again. Annoying, but I sail in shallow water and have been anchoring to lower the mast, and even to reef.

My latest experience was kind of nutso though. 

I was getting nailed with some fairly strong winds, narrow channel. I wasn't making adequate headway, so I fired up the outboard, still got blown into a weed bed, because the sail, even unsheeted was causing more leeway than the engine could over come.

Prop on the outboard ate too many weeds and snarled. Well shoot, I knew I had to raise my bilge boards and sail out of the weed bed. 

So, I threw out my anchor and tried to reef, so I could point without capsizing. 
Then one of the spindly little lazy Jack's lines got sucked into my throat halyard block!

Now it's blowing 20-25, my outboard is done and my bilge boards are up and I can't reef, or go back to a fully set main. Any way I kind of jury rigged a very sloppy reef where the sail happened to be and managed to beach the boat in a swamp, drop the mast and I had to cut the lazy Jack's out of the throat block, raise the mast, then managed to sail out on a double reef.

What a pain in the neck. I think I'm done with lazy Jack's.


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## FreeAgent (Apr 19, 2017)

After a lifetime of sailing, I have been making geriatric upgrades to our boat so my wife and I can still handle her. One of the upgrades was our first ever lazyjacks.

I was not fully committed so did it on the cheap. THis is what I have:
- pair of fairleads with S/S liners at about spreader height. 
- pair of small cleats on mast at about boom level
- a pair of 1/4" lazyjack "halyards" that run up the mast, through the fairleads and down to S/S rings that are spliced on.
- a single vee of 1/4" line on each side of boom leading up and through the S/S ring
- I at first used lashings to hold each end of the Vee, but once location decided, put on 4 eyestraps.

With this setup, all lines run on mast and boom when not in use. Vee is sized so when collapsed it just reaches gooseneck. There they and halyard rings are hooked to the gooseneck reefing hooks. Only when taking main down do I pull on "halyard" to form the vee shaped guides to collect the main (which has full battens). Hardly know they are there when sailing and they are under sailcover when at dock.

It works surprisingly well. Total cost about $50. More or less like this one except no blocks used.


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## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

Arcb 
Take a good look at this set up: Lazy Jack System - EZ-JAX These are 'retractable'.

Ive been using an equivalent for about 20 years. Mine is a 4-line per side version; the 'front' two lines are black bungee, so the whole set-up is _self adjusting_ if Im too lazy to retract them when sailing, or am putting in humongous mainsheet pressure to cup-up the leech, etc.

Retracting (for sailing or raising) is easy as all is controlled from the base of the mast, the single control 'Y' line runs up and then 'splits' into two cheek blocks mounted under the spreaders. When released to retract, all the 'lines' are dropped & gathered and stored under reefing hooks at the tack - all the 'retracted and stored' jacklines are along the bottom of the boom and 'just behind' the mast. The bitter end of the control line is permanently cleated to the mast.

The best for any lazy jack system is to retract them before raising the sail, so that the battens (I'm 2-full +2-long) don't foul on the lazy jacks when raising, especially in stink weather. The bungee lines allow enough automatic stretch so I don't inadvertently spoil the sail shape (can't help myself - I have severe 'sail tweakers disease'). 
I use harken bullet blocks instead of rings, and use small dia. braided polyester for the jack lines.

;-)


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## albrazzi (Oct 15, 2014)

Im happier with mine since I ran the line to the cockpit with the others, mostly it allows easing to put on the main bag. Without 3 or 4 crew to lower and flake properly they are an indispensable compromise. IMHO


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## Pendragon35 (Jun 26, 2014)

sailingdog said:


> I love the lazy jacks on my boat, but the setup I have allows me to fully retract the lazy jacks when sailing, so that they don't get in the way of raising the main, affect its shape, or chafe the sail.


Could you describe your setup? I singlehand a lot and lazy jacks are at the top of my list of improvements wanted. I've been under the impression though that they would be stowed for hoisting (I have an Alberg 35 with full length battens), then deployed when ready to drop the main. So the sequence would be:
1. Head to wind, set on autopilot
2. Deploy lazy jacks
3. lower main
3. furl main
4. stow lazy jacks


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## FreeAgent (Apr 19, 2017)

Arcb,

Hope you are enjoying your Canada 150 cruise!

For your size of boat, with mast going up and down to pass under bridges, I can see how lazyjacks could be a nuisance. Perhaps the retractable type that I described may be a bit better. I would try to keep things as *simple* as possible. Your main is quite big!

General comment: There should be little to no friction when deploying lazyjacks. For the type I described (Rich described more or less same thing), I see no advantage in having blocks at the end of the lazyjack halyard. A metal ring or a round sailmakers thimble spliced in (knots can snag) provides less chance of snagging and chafe. A single Vee to catch sail works fine on our full batten main, 13 foot boom. The Bay Hen 21 below seems to have double vee but one is kind of small to help much. Second one seems to have single vee - fewer lines to tangle?


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

FreeAgent said:


> Second one seems to have single vee - fewer lines to tangle?


 the second one is my boat on the Ottawa River.

Actually, your and Richh's posts have given me some ideas to consider, I've been kind of staring up at my rig and thinking about it.

Maybe all I need is a bungee cord to provide some light tension down and forward when I need it? I'm going to give it a try.


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## chef2sail (Nov 27, 2007)

We have ez jacks . Look them up. The advantage is they are retractable and get pulled back to the mast . They get deployed before dropping the sail. This way they are not in the way when raising the sail andvwith 4 full battens nothing hangs up. 

It has 3 V,s and none of the sail "leaks" out when we drop it. In fact with the in mast track when the sail comes down if we don't break it a little it comes down too fast with a thud,. It is always well flaked👍👍😄😄


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## FreeAgent (Apr 19, 2017)

Arcb said:


> the second one is my boat on the Ottawa River.
> 
> Actually, your and Richh's posts have given me some ideas to consider, I've been kind of staring up at my rig and thinking about it.
> 
> Maybe all I need is a bungee cord to provide some light tension down and forward when I need it? I'm going to give it a try.


Hey - that pic was a good find then 

One thing to consider, would be to clip the aft end of your Vee to the boom so removal is easy. When you want to drop mast unclip it and just pull the lazyjacks up against the past. (sail would be tied to booms by this stage)


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## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

FreeAgent said:


> Arcb,
> 
> ............. I see no advantage in having blocks at the end of the lazyjack halyard. A metal ring or a round sailmakers thimble spliced in (knots can snag) provides ............


I used to think so, too. However, when retracting or deploying the lazy jacks - to along the boom and along the mast, etc. - is when those bullet blocks REALLY come into play as there's less friction when all those now retracting/deploying jacks are busily 'spinning' those sheaves in the bullet blocks and are 'equilibrating' into their 'retracted' lengths and positions !!!! But then again, my mainsail is well over ~420 sq. ft. ;-)

FWIW, such a self-adjusting config also works very well on a clubfooted staysail, once you get the sail 'trained' to self-fold by itself as its lowered. Great for when slab-reefing that staysail especially when the foredeck is like a washing machine on 'heavy load' and you don't want to waste a lot of time in occasional waste deep water while flaking a damn sail.


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## FreeAgent (Apr 19, 2017)

RichH said:


> I used to think so, too. However, when retracting or deploying the lazy jacks - to along the boom and along the mast, etc. - is when those bullet blocks REALLY come into play as there's less friction when all those now retracting/deploying jacks are busily 'spinning' those sheaves in the bullet blocks and are 'equilibrating' into their 'retracted' lengths and positions !!!! But then again, my mainsail is well over ~420 sq. ft. ;-)


Well my current main is only 220sq.ft with 13ft boom. For me, keeping things simple on a boat comes from hard-earned experience on all sizes of boats! Fewer strings the better. However, everything is a compromise, so I finally relented and added lazyjacks to my boat. First time on my own boat, but installed or made dozens for others! Most owners seem to like them.

One additional good thing I found about using rings or thimbles instead of blocks, is that they can be easily hooked onto the reefing hooks and pulled tight when stowed against mast. Many of those commercial lazyjack kits with multiple blocks seem to be something the Yacht Equipment Sales dept dreamed up  $426.70 for Harken vs <$50 for me 

One negative about using the halyard type lazyjacks, is that you end up with two lines on each side of mast when they are not in use. The rings are hooked and there are no additional blocks, so no hardware clanging. But the lines do need to be tied off at dock or when moored if you or neighbours want to sleep! Locating the halyard block or fairlead on the spreaders if practical might help as would running one side internally.

Anyway, that's enough from me. Carry on


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## Minnesail (Feb 19, 2013)

It looks like a Bay Hen has no spreaders, so this doesn't really apply.

But on my boat I started my lazy jacks well out on the spreaders so they angle down to the boom. The main never catches on them when raising or lowering, and they don't interfere with sail shape.


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## chef2sail (Nov 27, 2007)

FreeAgent said:


> Well my current main is only 220sq.ft with 13ft boom. For me, keeping things simple on a boat comes from hard-earned experience on all sizes of boats! Fewer strings the better. However, everything is a compromise, so I finally relented and added lazyjacks to my boat. First time on my own boat, but installed or made dozens for others! Most owners seem to like them.
> 
> One additional good thing I found about using rings or thimbles instead of blocks, is that they can be easily hooked onto the reefing hooks and pulled tight when stowed against mast. Many of those commercial lazyjack kits with multiple blocks seem to be something the Yacht Equipment Sales dept dreamed up  $426.70 for Harken vs <$50 for me
> 
> ...


I like the rings also. That's what the EZ jacks utilize. For us the greater triangles creates a funneled flaking effect every time. The two lines on either side of the mast are pulled to the shrouds when not deployed so there is no noise of mast slap.

When I singlehanded having this reliable way to douse the main, with little exposure on deck ( everything is lead to the cockpit) is a safety issue too. I can always tie the sail up and pulled the jacks back after I have docked or anchored


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## roverhi (Dec 19, 2013)

I stow the lazy jacks at the mast. Just loose the LJ halyard, hook under the LJ halyard cleat and pull the LJ halyard taut and secure. If you are too lazy to stow LJ's like mine at the mast, you are too lazy. Boat came with a mainsail cover with slots for lazy jacks that were velcro fastened. Using those slots when the lazy jacks were left deployed (0nce) was a major PITA. Wouldn't reccomend going that route. The LJ's work fine left deployed once the main is raised.

Used brass rings found on eBay instead of blocks, work great. About 90% of the cost of the LJ's was the 1/4" line. The cheek blocks on the mast were also scored from eBay.

The LJ halyard needs to have the cheek blocks high on the mast to contain the clew end of the sail. If the mounting point is too low, the angle of the aft LJ line will be too low and the aft end of the sail will spill out.

Got the design from the Pearson 35 website but that site is no longer working though promised to return, sometime. Have a LJ halyards run to cheek blocks about 1/2 way between spreaders and mast head back down to a ring. One LJ line is dead ended on the boom at a point about a 1/3rd of the way aft of the goose neck. The other end of that line goes through the ring on the LJ halyard and back down to another ring. A 'V' line is run through second ring line and dead ended to the boom at both ends.


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