Lazy Jacks

[Mi Lote]

Good evening fellow Mac owners. My name is Carlos, my wife and I have an 04 M which we enjoy a lot; we are in Issaquah Wa. and we keep Mi Lote on Lake washington. We can't sail worth a darn yet but we are having fun learning.
I have been reading this forum for a while now and enjoy the exchange a lot. One item I do not remember being discussed are Lazy Jacks. Do any of you have one, if so, how well does it work? I just bought one and will be installing it soon, I hope it will help me sail solo.

Thanks in advance.

[Andy26M]

I own a 2004 26M also, and sail solo virtually all the time.

I do not have lazy jacks, because in my personal opinion, it's just more "stuff" to have to deal with and the mainsail is not that large as to be unmanageable - but, I'm sure I do look like a crazy fool when I drop my main in a big heap, then let the boat float aimlessly for a bit while I climb up on the cabin top to flake it and tie it...

- AndyS

[richandlori]

I too have a 2004M and love it!

I do have to ask....What is a "Lazy Jack" and what the heck does it do?

I don't have a clue.

Rich

[Randy Smith]

I have lazy jacks, they are triangular lines attached to the boom and the mast. The sail goes up the mast, so there are triangular lines which keep your sail tame on a quick drop and help in flaking the sail.
This only works on the mac if you have slugs in your sail.
Also, with the new boom kicker, I found the real need I had for the jacks was to keep the boom from bashing around in the cockpit, the boom kicker will do that.
I have quite a tangle of lines when I drop the mast, that is a drawback. I do like, as I said, the control.
With slugs, the sails likely would fall and flake beautifully, but with the bolt rope style the macs have, without slugs and full battens, the lazy jacks help Breezy to look tough and naughtical!!!!
Randy

[Sloop John B]

Lazy jacks are a series of attached lines that run from the boom up onto the mast. The lines are on both sides of the mainsail. When the mainsail is doused it is caught up in the lines and doesn't flop all over the place. One would have to have a pig tail or a topping lift to keep the boom from banging down onto the hatch when the main halyard is released.

I use a sail caddy, but they cost too much. Many sailors make their own jack lines out of bungee chords and such.

[Carl Noble]

I made my Sail Caddy using the Mod that Bill Mackenzie posted in the Mod Section under the Sailing catagory. The total cost for the caddy was under $30 and it works great. It is esspecially useful when singlehanding. The best feature of the Sail Caddy system is that it is attached only to the boom so when you take the mast down you can just throw the boom down below without having to detach anything extra. I leave my boat in a slip and after lowering the main I can just leave it in the Sail Caddy until I get back to the dock and then just lower the Caddy and put on my Main cover in the calmer water. One other problem with a Lazy Jack system is that the battens can get hung up in the lines if the sail isn't raised or lowered straight into the wind.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Using lazy jacks can help you manage the sail single handed. To make them really effective it helps to have a couple other things.

I assume you bought your boat from Bluewater. Did you have them add sail slides to the main and get a sail stop? Did you get the halyard aft addition? Did you get a boom kicker or topping lift?

If you have these additions you can use lazy jacks to help contain the sail when lowering. Another helpful addition is a downhaul line that will help with any batten snags on the way down.

I still think an even better system is one that combines lazy jacks with a top loading sail cover. You release the halyard and lower the sail. The lazy jacks guide the sail into the open canvas cover which catches it (just like the arms of the sail caddy), then you pull the long zipper tail and the whole sail is secured in the cover.

I'm not totally impressed with the design of the PowerSailing system, but it does serve the purpose. See the picture below.


It needs some additional soft stiffeners along the top edge so it isn't all baggy when open. The Doyle Stac Pack system has these and it works great. These type of main sail covers are becoming the standard item on bareboat charter monohulls and cats. This system is tops for convienience. You can handle the sail completely from the cockpit. With roller furling up front there is no need to go up on deck.

The downside of the metal arms sail caddy method is you still have to put on sail ties to stop the sail from blowing around as it just lies in the open on the boom. This usually means a trip forward.

[Randy Smith]

Wow! I did not know about top loading sail covers!!! Currently, I have to pull the jack lines down to the end of the boom and stow them in a clip, it is a lot of adjusting of lines. I have beome used to it, but as always, figure there has to be a better way! The next sail cover, I will consider the top loading....I just didn't know, thanks Duane Randy

[Sloop John B]

The sail caddy is a bunch of fiberglass slats. With a diagram containing measurements, one could fabricate the thing quite easily.

Without slugs and a stop, a trip forward is necessary for me at sometime before the main is again hoisted, because I have to feed the pre-feeder.

A couple ties around the dropped main from the area of the cabin is usually sufficient to keep the main civil for overnight.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I could never live with the mess of the exposed sail on the caddy, particularly not overnight. Not to mention it's bad for the sail to leave it exposed to the UV rays. Dacron breaks down quickly. I see the sail caddy only as a third hand to help control the sail when lowered and maybe briefly hold it while you get to a sheltered area. It's not a storage solution. If I had one I'd be going forward as soon as possible to put on a real sail cover for both protection and looks. I hate the look of a sailboat with lowered sails exposed.

[Dan B]

Here is my sail handling setup -
a) Boomkicker - to hold boom up when I drop the sail.
b) Sailcaddy (with a downhaul line) - to catch the main when dropped.
c) Sail slugs and main halyard run aft - so I can raise/lower from cockpit.

Only item left is a reefing system so I never have to go up top except to on/off the sailcover.

[Frank C]

I could never live with the mess of the exposed sail on the caddy, particularly not overnight. Not to mention it's bad for the sail to leave it exposed to the UV rays . . . .

Rumor has it that UV radiation is de minimus overnight ... couldn't say for sure ... just a rumor!


(sorry, couldn't resist!)

[Frank C]

. . . I'm not totally impressed with the design of the PowerSailing system, but it does serve the purpose. . . . It needs some additional soft stiffeners along the top edge so it isn't all baggy when open. The Doyle Stac Pack system has these and it works great.

Duane,
On a more serious note ... I've pondered getting one of these, but never opened the wallet. I don't have a sail cover, preferring to stow the boom & sail below decks and remount each time I sail. I figure that the sail is aloft for 65% of the daylight hours I have it above deck, and those are mid-day hours. Therefore, I'm guessing that 85% of the UV radiation occurs when I'm using the sail - just a guess.

The picture looks great if one's perspective is, "GEE, it's time to drop the main, what a great solution to catch the sail." OTOH, after I raise my mainsail, does that mess of canvas cover hang over my cockpit all day while sailing? HMMMM ... Seems like lots of noise, obstructed views, etc. If the catch-cover looks like that on my boom all day long, I'd rather just deal w/ sail canvas once at day's end. Appreciate hearing your opinion, experience.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I saw one of those systems like Duane describes at a sailboat show a few years back. Seems like you stuffed the bag down into the lower part of the lazy jacks...so it was really the lazy jacks catching the sail, not the bag...then you would go up top, pull the bag around the sail and zip it up. On some of these systems, I think you need grommets in the sail to ride up and down the lazy jacks (to keep the sail captive), or something like that.

But yea, if it looked like in the picture Duane has posted, it would probably mess with the airflow around the main while sailing too.

[Jack O'Brien]

Dimitri:

Chances are if you saw grommets in the sail with lines running through them it was a Dutchman System. That is probably the best system of them all but also the most expensive as it takes a sailmaker to install the grommets with re-enforcing panels. The sail simply cannot escape the lines and it flakes very evenly on the boom. Would be more lines to fiddle with when deriging. The big boys use the Dutchman system.

http://images.sailnet.com/dutchman/sail ... findex.htm