Building Lazy Jacks

[Auspicious]

I'm with Brian. I don't have any blocks for my lazy jacks, just a bullseye on the first spreader.

For me the key to controlling the sail -- with or without lazy jacks, is to pull the sail back and flake it as it comes down and stop dropping to tie the sail down as you go forward. This is trivial with two people and reasonable with one (although one spends a lot of time heading forward and back).

[blahman]

Well, different ways of tackling the same horse. You choose to drill a hole to mount a bullseye, or run a line inside the mast, I lash a fairlead and keep the line outside. You dyneema, I polyester. Whatever. The polyester has been working fine on my boat for three years.

As for your opinion of lazyjacks, I disagree. With the stackpack and lazyjacks, I barely have to touch my mainsail, and it makes the whole experience much easier for my 60 year old parents who are novice sailors. Since we don't have to touch the sail, other than pulling slab reefing lines into the pac after lowering, the material isn't getting worked by hands and I think that makes a big difference in sail shape over time. I rarely touch my lazyjacks and certainly don't lower them every time I raise the main - only when I want to raise or lower the main when below a beam reach after setting a spinnaker. Otherwise I head up to something over beam reach, sheet the main out and it is never a problem to leave the jacks up. The complaint about the roach getting caught shows one isn't heading up and/or sheeting out, or that the lazyjack's legs weren't installed in a way that guides the sail up. As for lowering, again - that's never a problem for us - head up some, sheet out and the main goes where it's supposed to. Again, the stackpack doesn't make that much difference - it worked the same before when simply lazyjacks. Without a pack, as Auspicious said, flaking the sail as it comes down can be very helpful, especially if you don't have a lazyjack leg far aft on your boom to keep the lower leach in place.

On a more personal note, this "a 32' boat is too small" thing is opinion and fairly ridiculous and the idea that lazyjacks have to moved out of the way to hoist, just the same. I can believe you have trouble getting lazyjacks to work because I've seen experienced people have trouble with them, usually due to the forward leg's position. But it's unfair to go around telling people that jacks don't work and shouldn't be used on "small" (because a 300ft/2 main is tiny) boats. Consider that, however slim you may think the chances are, something about your lazyjacks may be keeping them from working the way they are supposed to. It is terribly condescending to respond to posts by essentially saying "what he just said is wrong and can't work and this is the only way you should do it, when that person has just finished saying "this works for me."

I don't mean to be offensive, but dislike when people flatly dismiss other's methods of doing things. A 32' boat to you may be small, but to another its main is a beast that's hard to tackle, etc, etc. The internet and forums like this are a great resource and place for people to discuss what works for themselves to the end of helping others.

~Aaron

[Ian McColgin]

One of the trials of small boats is they often lack the conveniences of larger boats, and lazy jacks are a great convenience indeed. For a boat like the Stuart, indeed for marconi sails up to maybe 400 square feet, a very simple system that combines quarter lifts with lazy jacks, known locally as LazyIans in the mistaken belief that I thought of this. More properly LazyLifts. LazyLifts eliminate the topping lift, with all the damage it does the leach of the sail, and eliminates the slappy-sloppy of the weather side of conventional lazy jacks.

Instead of cheek blocks up on the mast, you can simply lash a block under each spreader and inch or so out from the mast. If you think of the boom divided into quarters, the lifts will pass under the boom 3/4 back, half back, and probably in a small boat cleat 1/4 back.

It’s made of two different lines:

The longer passes under the boom 3/4 back, up through the blocks under the spreaders, and down about half way to deck, terminating at each end in a thimbled eye. (No need for blocks.)

The shorter passes under the boom half way back, up through the thimbled eyes, and down to the boom 1/4 of the way back.

Simple strap eyes will keep the two loops in position. One cleat on the starboard side of the boom - so it’s handy to you’re handling of the main halyard, reefing lines, etc. - will accommodate both parts of the falls from the shorter line.

If you draw the geometry you will see that this arrangement puts most of the lift on the boom on the aftermost loop. The brand name lazy-jack systems do this exactly backwards and if used as lifts, will allow considerable boom sag. With lazy lifts you would have a 4:1 lift pulling on just one side were the parts all together and absent friction. There’s lots of friction - useful in this application - and one loop and the falls are not out on the boom so it’s more like 2:1 actual effort but with a light small boom like this, no problem.

Until the sail is up enough that the leach starts to lift the boom, the LazyLifts will be tight. Once you have the system adjusted, the lifts will slacken as luff tension is added. When the sail is filled, the lifts will be pushed out on the lee side, thus tightening on the weather side. So you don’t have a lot of slapping about.

When you reef or otherwise want to peak up the boom, the adjustment is right there and handy.

I can give details of how to rig this in advance, rig up or down, for those interested but for now . . .

G’luck

Ian

[Robbie.g]

blahman

I rarely touch my lazyjacks and certainly don't lower them every time I raise the main - only when I want to raise or lower the main when below a beam reach after setting a spinnaker.

The way i read this is that you drop the main after setting the spinnaker!!
You cant be serious. or have i missed somthing

[blahman]

Robbie,

You read that correctly. I have 1000ft/2 asymmetric that I can use up to about 85* apparent; from there down to ~140* off, I'll often leave the main up and spinnaker unpolled, especially when in a harbor. I use a sock and single sheet, so if I have to gybe, I douse the asymm to move the sheet out and around, during which time it's nice to have the main up for blanketing and maneuverability; it lets the windvane do its job while I gybe the spinnaker.

If while on that broad reach I decide to set the pole for something deeper, I usually head down, get the asymm polled and drawing well, then drop the main without heading up. I find it easier to drop the leeward lazyjack, then sheet the main in and bring it down slowly, flaking it onto the boom while letting the windvane steer. On that run, there's not much pushing on the main, whereas if I head up to a beam reach (as high as I can get while keeping the asymm full), it's real hard on the main to come down, with all the apparent wind dragging it alone the shrouds and spreaders. I'd rather let the windvane sail the boat on the run and take a bit more time getting the main down, keeping it off the rigging.

Of course, if I am close reaching and decide I want to set the spinnaker for a run, I drop all three sails, then set the asymm; but if the chute has been set for a POS used with the main and I want to go down, I don't go through the hassle of dropping it and then resetting.

It seems to work well for me.

~A