Stack pac

[irwinsailor]

Does anyone here use the stack pac system for thier sails?

[swagman]

Yes sir.

We've Hanse 461 with a big main on a 23 metre mast. You can just make out the beige coloured stackpack on our thumbnail picture alongside
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The stackpack plus Harken ball sliders makes dropping and covering the mailsail a 3 minute job - and uncovering ready for hoisting takes seconds.

Invaluable.

Cheers
JOHN

[Curtis]

Our boat came with what they call a stack BAG. I think it is the stack pak without the membrane that attaches the sail to the cover.

I have to say that I wouldn't recommend our arrangement. We end up lowering the bag and tieing it to the boom...probably be easier and cleaner just to have a conventional cover. The pak is better because the membrane pulls the cover snug when the sail is up.

[Alan Wheeler]

Can anyone post a picture or two of this thing. I am curiuose as to what it is and how it works. I have just fitted lazyjacks to my boom. Has improved handling the main in a good blow, but still has issues especiallywhen I try raising the sail when not heading direct into the wind.

[capt lar]

hey wheels - go to website for moorings or sunsail and look at ad photos - they are usually fitted with stackpacs. theory is sail drops in and you zip it up.
i have the other system, dutchman, and would prefer the stackpac. i guess i am lazy but, unlike many on this forum, i just adapt to what comes with the boat (except rigging and safety gear)

hoisting the main without bow into the wind is not a great idea in anything but light wind. i assume you just let the main spill out to leeward side so it does not fill and lack of pressure on luff lets you hoist. this also makes me think the main sheet is running free, so the boom is not under control. i would guess the lazy jacks are keeping the sail closer to center, catching more air and making it jamb when hoisting. am i close ?

capt. lar

[Vasco]

Wheels,

The usual problem with lazyjacks is the battens getting snagged in them when hoisting the sail. This is due, in large part, to the narrow "slot". I fixed this by using bungee cords at the spreader tips (actually fastened to the rigging here) tied to the lazy jacks at that height. This gives you a much wider slot and, when you tighten the lazy jacks before dropping the sail, the bungees stretch giving you a narrow slot again. The bungee cords pull the lazyjacks to the sides when they are loosened.

[Alan Wheeler]

Arrr, that sounds like the ticket Vascoe. I'll try that. I have also made my own design of lazy jack system. It works really well except for that rare time of a (usually second or third) batten getting caught under the jack line going up to the cross arm. This tends to happen when we have been sailing under genoa only, like out of the sound and still under motor as well. Instead of furling the genoa, we just raise the main. But the angle into the wind is wide becasue the Genoa doesn't like close haul work when on it's own, as it does when it is partnered with the main. So the main tends to get raised on too broad a tack angle than the lazy jack allows. Any closer into the wind and the Genoa flaps a shakes the snot out of the furler.
Of course, some of this may also change a little (maybe, maybe not) as I need to tune the rig a little more. I need to extend the forstay 2 or 3" and allow the top of the mast to go back a bit. At the moment, I can't get enough rake and bend in the mast and so the top section of the mast is straight and the low/mid section has the bend, so it has an "S" shape to it. I think attention to that may change the way the headsail fly's a fraction (not to mention the main). Open to comments on that one.

[gosstyla]

This is one of the reasons I have been thinking about using a retractable lazy jack.

Any of you use that approach?

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeah well mine sorta kinda is. Ihave taken the lazy jack main lines through blocks at the spreaders and down the fron of the mast. I have two small clam cleats side by side that the lines run through. At the boom end, I take those main lines to the outer end of the boom. The "web" that captivates the sail is made from shock cord and is attached to those main lines via SST rings. The "web" being run forward. So if I let of the slack on the main lines at the mast, the shock cord pulls forward and down to the boom and one main line each side billows out away fromt he sail. When I pull the main line taught, then the "web" is pulled up and back into place to captivate the sail.

[Jon D]

gosstyla once whispered in the wind:
This is one of the reasons I have been thinking about using a retractable lazy jack.

Any of you use that approach?

Mine are

Never have an issue raising the sail with them forward. They retract to a point about 1 foot back from the gooseneck. Have a nylon cleat there just pull the aft end forward and tie off. Also we store the sail with the leads forward so the sailcover is cleaner only one slit in it for the lazy jacks.

When it's time to drop the sail just uncleat and pull them up.

[Joli]

We use the UK version style "Lazy Cradle" and are very happy with it. We also have a very large main and the thought of having to gasket the sail and then cover it is daunting. Now it is about a five minute job to get ready to go sailing and 10 minutes to put it away.

The main is about 1000 sq ft, e=22', p=84'. The lazy jacks can be a pain but I really do not see any other way good way of capturing and covering the sail. Other than $50k to buy a new main and Liesure Furl.

Oh, we also use the Harken Battcar's. Very nice.

[swagman]

Vasco once whispered in the wind:
Wheels,

The usual problem with lazyjacks is the battens getting snagged in them when hoisting the sail. This is due, in large part, to the narrow "slot". I fixed this by using bungee cords at the spreader tips (actually fastened to the rigging here) tied to the lazy jacks at that height. This gives you a much wider slot and, when you tighten the lazy jacks before dropping the sail, the bungees stretch giving you a narrow slot again. The bungee cords pull the lazyjacks to the sides when they are loosened.

When yo uthink about it - lazy jacks have no use at all when raising a sail - only when lowering.
So if your lazy jacks are seriously adjustable - as our are - you can let them off and hitch them forward to the gooseneck - and they therefore do not risk catching a sail batten as the sail goes up. Keeping them on the mast and not deplying them again until you want to drop the sail also prevents any chafe twix lazy jack and sail when underway.

Sure - this may take a minute or two - but one usually gains more than those few minutes as you can with no lazy jacks to interfere - raise the sail a lot quicker.

Cheers
JOHN

[Vasco]

John,

The bungee cords do this automatically. When I take the sail ties off I also loosen the lazyjacks and the shock cords pull them towards the mast and also apart. However the ultimate solution is a furling main.

[LouVul]

Doyle recently installed the StackPack on my Sea Sprite 34. I am still getting familiar with the added complexity and the appearance.