Lazy main dropping

[FullCircle]

Evening Campers.
Well, I've fixed most things now, so I want to rig a cheap lazythingy system for catching the main on dropping. It has to be cheap and effective.
I have spoken with AlexL who has a reasonable sounding system on his boat.
Suggestions please, or links to ingenious folks websites who have done it before.
Boat is 23ft Fractional, so not big. Would be nice to have it adjustable from the cockpit, but not essential.

The next post asks for advice on a boom preventer system, so do that straight after this one.....



Ta

Jim & Lynn

<hr width=100% size=1>Second Chance - First Love. Look for the Yellow Dinghy in Burnham.

 

[Seal_surfer]

This can be very, very simple and still work effectively. On my similarily rigged 22@ Seal, I I have been using Lazy jacks for ~6 years as followa:

~ 3mm cheap braided cord tied to a spreader just Outboard of mast Bkt & led under boom (through an eye on underside ~2' from clew) and up to other spreder. This is left overlong and slack/adjustment via a simple cleat on boom near eye. Add one or two mor lines at point between clew & gooseneck on boom that go vertically up & secure to original long line with a rolling hitch. You can then slide these extras along to get best effect. Neglible cost, works great - just watch out for battens catching by momentarily pausing your hoist till sail flaps the right way. Letting off topping lift when lowering sail wil help lazyjacks taughten and work better providing no-one gets head brained by boom.

I did consider that wiyh a small rig, you no longer need the topping lift - lazyjacks could be used. Just wouldn't want to trust them (3mm cord) for MOB recovery hoist.

Good luck.

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[Guest]

My idea - yet to try ....

a single 3mm line run from gooseneck boom end to aft end. This lies under the boom.

guesstimate the height of spreaders above boom and take a 3mm line - lay out on floor as :

lay in a V ...... that is equal lengths each side. the v corresponds to 60% of boom length across the open top of V and sides of v to the hypotenuse between 60% mark on boom and spreaders + enough length both sides to drop from spreaders to mast base.

Now using the under boom line ..... lay that disecting the open V and passing across the point of the V with that being the 60% mark on the boom line.
Make up short lines to cross the V at intervals perpendicular to underboom line with mid part fixed to the under boom line. All knots to be rolling hitches to allow adjustment later. Suggest 2 intermediate lines.

Now that you have this cats cradle made up ...... have suitable small weight attached to spreader lines and throw one line over each side of spreaders ..... that is one either side of mast. The lines should be loing enough to fix at base of mast for adjustment. Of course before doing this the underboom line and crossing lines were passed under boom !!!

Now attach ends of underboom line to boom ends and adjust tension on lines going over spreaders.

OK - I haven't done it yet - but its my project for later and I thought this way to alow adjustment in all areas, allows spreader lines to self adjust depending on boom angle to mast and sail action etc. etc. Its cheap and does away with blocks and all sorts of fancy bits. It can be removed and altered as necessary quite quickly.

If anyone does this - can they let me know what happens ???? Or pm me direct on nluther@solent-life.co.uk maybe my description is not so clear ????


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[boatless]

Re: My idea - yet to try ....

Nigel, done this - but slightly simplified.

One line goes from one third from aft end of boom, over spreader, around mast face, over opposite spreader and back to same point on boom (other side). One further line on each side from halfway up back down to one third from forward end of boom. All left slightly long for adjustment.

Used sail slides in under boom track, only needed two lines per side on a 30 ft boat.

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[Guest]

Re: My idea - yet to try ....

The idea of the weighted lines thrown over spreader .... so that it could be rigged while mast is stepped and not climbing up etc. - leaving adjustable ends etc at base of mast.
I was on one boat that needed the main hypotenuse line slacked a touch ..... of course this was a 'kit' from a swindlery and had no way to do it other than bend on an extra bit of line etc.
Other boats need it reasonably tight ...... etc. so adjustable I want !!

Actually thinking about it - with line going around mast - it si possible to adjust ... but leaves loose ends at boom ......


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[boatless]

Re: My idea - yet to try ....

I weighted the line to get it over the spreaders. Left the main line length fixed and the secondaries adjustable (so that tension in them also transferred to primary). Once set up (to perfection) allowing the topping lift to do the final tightening was fine. Having said that, I always refix the mainsheet out to the toerail to clear the cockpit, so boom/head clearance was not a consideration.

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[Guest]

Fair do\'s !! nm

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<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/