Lazyjacks are hard work

Rogershaw said:
Yes but you dont need the sail bag/statpack to be held up when sailing. In fact it would be better to wrap the statpack under the boom to allow the sail to set better.

Rain what rain
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In which case you have to go on deck to do that & you have already been told that Karen wants to stay in the cockpit. - Sensible girl!!
I
 
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Twisterowner said:
Being reliant on an engine for something as basic as setting sail doesn't seem a good idea to me. You ought to be able to sail off a buoy or from an anchorage without the need of an engine. Also, being able to do things under sail makes sailing more enjoyable and gives confidence.
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Clearly one needs to have the skills to manouver the boat in an emergency. But if you have an engine then why not just use the ... thing & avoid any problems in a confined moorings.There would be no point having it if you did not use it
 
Daydream believer said:
Clearly one needs to have the skills to manouver the boat in an emergency. But if you have an engine then why not just use the ... thing & avoid any problems in a confined moorings.There would be no point having it if you did not use it
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Rather sad if manouvering under sail has become something to be only done in emergency.
 
Daydream believer said:
In which case you have to go on deck to do that & you have already been told that Karen wants to stay in the cockpit. - Sensible girl!!
I
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But you can wrap the statpack under the boom ahd stow the lazy jacks before you leave the dock and are still tied up to the mooring.

Once you are in open water you just raise the mainsail from the cockpit.
 
Perhaps, but sailing onto a mooring or pontoon reduces my safety margin. I can do it, but I'd rather have plenty of searoom when raising or lowering sails and use the engine when parking or maneuvering at close quarters.

It may only go wrong under sail one time in 100 but, over a season, that's still too many opportunities to end up in a You Tube fail compilation for comfort :o
 
well proper inboard engines are new to us and a lovely luxxury, but not being able to get the sail stright up was a bugbear. I took on board the suggestions on here, and today fitted a couple of blocks, and ran the jacklines back to a couple of cam cleats on the coachroof. Works a treat, dropping them to hoist. I still have to fit it all properly, needs an organiser block to take the lines back properly
 
Stemar said:
Perhaps, but sailing onto a mooring or pontoon reduces my safety margin. I can do it, but I'd rather have plenty of searoom when raising or lowering sails and use the engine when parking or maneuvering at close quarters.

It may only go wrong under sail one time in 100 but, over a season, that's still too many opportunities to end up in a You Tube fail compilation for comfort :o
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I'm sure you can do it, but there's nothing like regular practice to ensure proficiency. When I had a swinging mooring we would set off and return under sail whnever practicable, but now that I have a marina berth I have become lazy, though I managed to return to the marina last year when the engine/prop let us down. I think there are few times when I would want or need to hoist a mainsail when under way without a motor, though, and I can hardly think of any occasions when I had to do so. My only requirement when raising or lowering the main is quiet water. I am always surprised to see yachts struggling with their sails outside a harbour when there is plenty of room inside to do it with ease.
 
solent clown said:
well proper inboard engines are new to us and a lovely luxxury, but not being able to get the sail stright up was a bugbear. I took on board the suggestions on here, and today fitted a couple of blocks, and ran the jacklines back to a couple of cam cleats on the coachroof. Works a treat, dropping them to hoist. I still have to fit it all properly, needs an organiser block to take the lines back properly
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Sounds good.
 
I am not a time traveller BTW, I had to use Karen's go pro thingie to take the pics, and date isnt set! For some reason any pics I take on my phone are impossible to either send, email, bluetooth or even use a cable to download. Stumped with phone tech when it randomly goes wrong. Time to buy a cheapie digital camera as I can't be trusted with the decent one according to her nibs
 
Daydream believer said:
Those lines do look thick. I use nylon sash window cord. Braided, cheap, effective & thick enough
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I think it is sash cord size by the looks of it, same diameter, looks about 8mm, I didnt fit it, I merely utilised what was there running the lazyjacks already fitted by the rigger. Fortunately it was long enough to reach the cockpit. ;)
 
solent clown said:
taking a leaf from your book, I am sailing on the cheap, so redoing sails is out of the questuon when what is on there works. :D
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An old style heavy sewing machine has saved me a lot of money over the years. Keep your eyes open for a good deal on any zig zag one for cheap. It will pay for itself quickly.
I found the thread I got from sewing supplies would only go thru two layers of 7 ounce sailcloth, but the stuff I got from a sailmaker would go thru 7 layers of 7 ounce sailcloth. Sailmakers also use a silicone spray for even more lubrication and cooling the needle.
On used sails I cut the roach off and, on my current one, sewed the cut off part back on, matching the cut edges and staggering the seams.Works well.
On a run from Rarotonga to Auckland, an old main had a batten pocket tear out completely .So I hand sewed it back together .Then ten feet of seam tore, starting at a batten. So I hand sewed that back together. In Auckland I asked a sailmaker to cut the roach off, put a third row of stitching in, and a 2 inch tape the length of the leech. He said "Throw it out and buy a new one .It is not worth the time and money."
I said 'That is all the money I have. Cant afford anything else ."
So he did it, and with that old main sail, I sailed from Auckland to New Caledonia ,Vanuatu, in some extremely squally weather, and beat into a strong trade with to Fiji, without popping a stitch.
The changes were well worth doing.
 
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I thought I would feedback on the efficacy - or otherwise - of our modification.
Dropping the lazyjacks till the sailbag sides drooped, and heading roughly into the wind has done the trick every time so far. The battens occasionally still just about catch, but a flick of the sail or rudder sorts it out fine. Once the main is up we take up a little slack but leave them baggy until needed at end of play.
The other problems we had hoisting the mainsail were due to a badly routed main halyard catching, and reefing line tangles (they also go back to cockpit) which I have now sorted out properly.
So, in short, we brought the lazyjack lines back to the cockpit, added a couple of clutches to enable easy adjustment. It was enough with heading into the wind to make life easy.
So lazyjacks are not such hard work now.
Maybe the real hard work was getting the tweaks and experience to make it easy. It was a stunning afternoon out on the water today. After a long long winter of wearing half a wardrobe of clothes each sat in the cockpit, it was a pleasure today to just have a jumper and an LJ on . :encouragement:
 
Pleased all sorted. As I was toiling away today I had a moment to glance out the window and see some sun so envious of those afloat . Our first adventure at weekend was to back out of our berth and into a new one but at least we were on board and fixing things like patio magicing the decks and fixing the heads.
 
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