Do you stow your lazy jacks?

[jackdale]

As an instructor I have sailed with many different configurations for lazy jacks.

My least favourite is lazy jacks built into stack packs. My favourite are lazy jacks that can be stowed at the mast. After the sail is down and sail ties attached., that the lazy jacks are stowed and conventional sailcover is employed at the dock.

The photo shows the set up I liked on a Nauticat 37.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Sabbatical II

My last boat had an excellent lazy jack system fitted by a local sailmaker. It had a line for each side of the bag and the whole lot could be stowed at the mast when sailing. The bag stayed upright on the boom when sailing and if I needed to drop the sail it was a simple thing to uncleat the lazy jacks off the mast and re-tension them for use. The system on my new boat is not so user friendly and I can't easily stow them at the mast. My question is: How many of you just leave the lazy jacks up and has the chafe damaged the sail at all?

Chafe? My main is 15 years old and all stretched out, but no chafe. Untill a short while ago the jacks were fixed, so I know they were up.

Stow them? Only if hoisting in a strong breeze and unable to get fully into the wind; jacks can hang on battens. Single-handing, for example. I generally immediatly re-set them, as I want them up when I drop and never know when that might be.

Want to convert? Though not pretty, this is about the simplest way:
Sail Delmarva: Adjustable Lazy Jacks--Done the Lazy Way
Given that I only retract them a dozzen times each year, this is fine and keeps things very simple. No extra lines.

[Jim Cate]

[QUOTE=zeehag;1056028]using lazy jax on only one side when raising main is still useless. when wind blows during a dousing of sails, only one side will be of no use whatsoever. the job of lazy jax is to guuide sail onto boom without the sailor having to go into ocean to capture it. you are not able to control flukey winds when dousing sails. lazy jacks are both sides of sail. /QUOTE]

Zee, I think that what this chap has is normal double-sided LJ's. He is advocating simply slacking ONE side whilst hoisting the main, then resetting that side once the main is two-blocked.

And that isn't a bad idea IMO if one has problems with battens hanging up!

Cheers,

Jim

[zeehag]

thankyou jim--hadnt thought of that approach---i must be stuck in gaff rig-ville....

[Windara]

We take one or both of the lazy jacks to the mast when hoisting the main to prevent the batten hangup problem so common with full length battens. Once sail is up, we retension them loosly against the leward side of the sail. We have felt tip pen marks on the lazy jack tails to aid in proper positioning. The top block is just below the top spreader and leads down through a harken cam cleat on the mast that holds them in place. The end of the tail is tied to a fitting located adjacent to where the mast passes through the deck so we do not lose the end.

We find that there is no chafe in the sail after 5 years of cruising. Have not noticed any significant wear in the lazy jack lines either.

We find that keeping the lazyjacks up while sailing makes reefing a snap. The cover holds the excess sail and no reef point ties are needed, even in winds up to 40 knots. We have done 1500 miles passages from the Chesapeake to the Caribbean and still find it best to just leave them up. The only chafe we have seen in the system is chafe to the aft end of the sailcover from the leech reef lines, especially if they are not in use. A little tension on these to take up the slack reduces but not eliminates this chafe. We are adding leather patches to the aft end of the sailcover to combat this.

[Mr B]

My battens kept getting caught in the lazy jacks, made it very hard to get the main up and down. Especially since I was single handed,

Then I turned into the wind, I had no more trouble, the main went up and down with ease, and nicely packed itself on top of the boom,

5 minutes at most, the main sail went either up or down irrelevant of the wind strenght,

Just make sure your hatch covers are shut when you head into the wind,

4 and 5 metre waves over the bow make for a very wet bed with the hatches open, Lesson learnt, Hahahaha

[zeehag]

uhoh sounds like you got your pillow wet...hmmm

[Mr B]

Pillows, mattress, Blankets, and 2 inches deep on the floor, both hulls, Time to find out if the bilge pumps work, Hahahahaha They did,

[Kettlewell]

My lazy jacks are set up so they are pretty tight when the sail is lowered and in its boom crutch or just snugged down tight by the main sheet, but when I raise the sail to the top it raises the boom enough to slacken the jacks so they aren't very tight against the sail. Seems to work fine. No chafe that is of concern. I only have a couple of legs. I consider them moderately useful, but I think I might skip them in the future. They are more useful the bigger your main is and the harder it is to reach the boom.

[cheoah]

I've been sailing my "new" boat for two years now, with her full battens and lazy jacks. Funny how after two years I've never addressed the annoying stuck batten problem, nor did I know that others had the same problem. Duh. Thank you Cruisers Forum, and ye sailors older, wiser, and saltier than I.

I'll try the one leeward side method and go from there. I do not stow my jacks for the cruising I do, as they can be an asset with lines lead aft for reefing or striking sail, in the case of a thunderstorm, or nighttime coastal sailing in lively conditions, etc. Should probably look for opportunities to do it if I discover chafe.

I presume you stow them when one employs your shade canopy? Still need to sew one of those up and come up with a good system..

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Mr B

Pillows, mattress, Blankets, and 2 inches deep on the floor, both hulls, Time to find out if the bilge pumps work, Hahahahaha They did,

And here I thought all sail boat hatches faced aft, with exception of large sail loft hatches. The Jib/genoa sheets would be hanging up on mine if they were facing forward.

[Stu Jackson]

[QUOTE=Jim Cate;1056168]

Originally Posted by zeehag

using lazy jax on only one side when raising main is still useless. when wind blows during a dousing of sails, only one side will be of no use whatsoever. the job of lazy jax is to guuide sail onto boom without the sailor having to go into ocean to capture it. you are not able to control flukey winds when dousing sails. lazy jacks are both sides of sail. /QUOTE]

Zee, I think that what this chap has is normal double-sided LJ's. He is advocating simply slacking ONE side whilst hoisting the main, then resetting that side once the main is two-blocked.

And that isn't a bad idea IMO if one has problems with battens hanging up!

Cheers,

Jim

Jim, Thanks, that's right.

I wrote:

Yes, we have to go forward again to unhook the starboard lazy jack for dousing the sail, but there's never any hurry.

I will go back and revise that to read: after the main is raised, I unhook that lj so they're ready to go when we drop the sails at the end of the day.

Thanks to you and zee for pointing that out.

Stu

[impi]

We take the leeward side to the mast when hoisting the main under way ... bring it back once the sail is up and sail with them slightly slack on lee. So far no chafing I have observed.

[Maxs]

My lazy jack lines goes to cheeck blocks 2/3 up the mast, then down to the collar and back to the cockpit so they can be easily adjusted.
I used to release and take them to the mast, to the gooseneck reefing hooks. I'm a coastal cruiser, so I take my sail up and down lots times during the weekend, so, I installed a stack pack. Wasn't able to move the lines to the mast and they started catching the full battens. The solution was simple and works great.
I installed one shock cord from the shroud to the LJ's uppermost block on each side, so when I slacken the lines from the cockpit, the shock cords open the lazy jack, given me more room to raise the sail ... Is not a perfect solution (depending on whom is at the helm), but is so much easier this way.
I might have a couple more lines back, but I hardly ever have to go forward when raising or lowering the sail.
BTW, The blocks on the LJ legs are now doing nothing. I should replace them with SS rings. I have no chafe at all, but you all know the KISS rule...

[carstenb]

Of course you could cure this problem once and for all by ditching the lazy jacks and getting a Dutchman system installed.................