self tending jib

[ckoucky]

I own a L.F. Golden Ball, in the original drawings it show the jib boom floating from a set of lazy jacks, it does not appear to be attached to the fore stay or deck. How is that supposed to work? Drawing can be seen in LFH's book "Sensible Cruising Designs"
Capt Chuck Koucky
S/V Alondra

[Brion Toss]

Hi,
This is one way to rig a self-tending stays'l. It is a Chesapeake style, evolved for maximum sail area (it can actually overlap the mast a bit), without the need for a deck attachment point for the boom. This means that, with lazyjacks rigged, you can drop the sail, and still have a clear foredeck to work on. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is very easy to knock someone overboard with this rig; it is even more susceptible to flogging about than other boomed forestays'ls. My teacher, Nick Benton, told me about the "Chesapeake Bay payoff", whereby at the end of the season, you'd send a now-superfluous crewmember forward for a bucket of bait, and then put the helm up. If you keep this boom, regulate foredeck traffic accordingly.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss