Lazyjacks, stackpacks etc.

How do you stow your main?

  • Stackpack

    Votes: 102 52.0%

  • Lazyjacks

    Votes: 36 18.4%

  • Flake down by hand

    Votes: 39 19.9%

  • In-mast or -boom furling

    Votes: 15 7.7%

  • Other

    Votes: 4 2.0%
  • Total voters
    196
snowleopard

snowleopard

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I am a devoted fan of my stackpack (or however you choose to spell it). Sailing short-handed it means I can drop the main in seconds and worry about tidying up after berthing. Reefs require attention to tack and clew only and harbour stowing is a question of running the zip along the top. I have just done an OPB* trip on a boat with nothing to catch the sail as it comes down and it was a 5-10 minute job for 2 people to stow it with the helmsman unsighted for a lot of that time.

Why make it hard for yourself?


* Other People's Boats
 
Depends on boat size. I removed the lazyjacks on my 27ftr, just didn't seem worth the hassle of having to adjust them, getting them caught on battens, more string at the mast. But on the current 33ft boat we have a fully battened main with stackpack, and it is certainly worth it.

Then you get crazy people like DanCrane who sticks lazyjacks on a dinghy...
 
I fitted lazyjacks to my 28-foot boat but I'm not convinced they're worth the trouble and I may remove them.

I find that a 3-strand line under the boom, stretched between the gooseneck and the boom end, with sail tyers threaded through the lay every couple of feet is the greatest help. It only takes a moment to drop the sail and get a few tyers around it. The only scary moment I ever had was when the mainsheet wasn't properly secured and I ended up dangling over the water
 
parsifal said:
I find that a 3-strand line under the boom, stretched between the gooseneck and the boom end, with sail tyers threaded through the lay every couple of feet is the greatest help. It only takes a moment to drop the sail and get a few tyers around it. The only scary moment I ever had was when the mainsheet wasn't properly secured and I ended up dangling over the water
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I currently have exactly the same setup on my 27 footer with its modest mainsail, fitted by a previous owner, which I've managed fine with for years. So I voted flake down by hand.

But I've just ordered a stackpack/lazyjack package from Crusader Sails, the reason being that I'm frequently single-handed and the coachroof on my narrow-beamed boat is awash with trip-hazards - oversize dorade vents and housings, liferaft mounted just forward of the sprayhood, etc.

Its a convenience I'm looking forward to benefitting from, when reefing as much as when coming into a harbour or anchorage, and should make covering the mainsail when finally stopped a quicker and more frequent occurrence!
 
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Kelpie said:
Depends on boat size. I removed the lazyjacks on my 27ftr, just didn't seem worth the hassle of having to adjust them, getting them caught on battens, more string at the mast. ...
Click to expand...

We have a stackpack on our 28ft boat. I've never understood why people find the need to adjust a stackpack every time they raise lower the sail. Once ours is set up at the start of the season it is not changed again until we take it off at season's end. Also, there is no string at the (bottom of the) mast. Our string starts at the stack pack goes up above the spreader and back to the stackpack (via a stainless ring split) to give a 3 point suspension. It was one of the first and, to my mind, necessary modifications for convenient single handing.
 
Tried lazyjacks last season on my 26 footer but found them more trouble than they were worth and removed them over the winter. They caught on sail battens when hoisting. If I left them alone while sailing they tap tap tapped against the sail. Pull them forward and they ting ting tinged against the mast. The final straw was when dropping the sail the 'flake' was just too tall and I had great difficulty getting the sail cover on.
I have three reefs in my main, so it is the work of seconds to pull them tight and flake down half the sail. I then fold the remaining sail into its own bunt and secure with a bungee 'spider'.
For those that don't know a spider is two lengths of bungee cord, slightly longer than the boom, whipped into a series of loops, each with a plastic clip. Strung under the boom it is easy to reach around and wrap each loop around the sail and secure it. Much safer than eye gouging individual bungees.
 
Looking at the stack packs on many yachts in a marina recently it looks to me as if there's no quick way of pulling the lazy-jacks forward out of the way. So to prevent the battens fouling the lazy-jacks, you have to be heading dead to windward when hoisting sail. The only way to do that is to use your engine. I wouldn't want to have to be dependant on an engine to hoist sail.
 
Whats wrong with using the engine to keep to windward...not a problem.
What is a problem is my autopilot veers off course ...now that is a problem!
Lazyjacks and two line reefing all done from the cockpit work very well for me.
 
Home made stackpack with four point lazy jacks incorporated on th Bavaria. The lazy jacks get set on the first sail of the season and stay like that. Hoisting the main is simply a matter of letting the main sheet go so that as the sail goes up the leech is kept over the top of the boom by the wind and hence the gap in the lazy jacks, thus avoiding batten trapping. Helps that the lazy jacks go up to pulleys on the top spreaders that are about 50cm out from the mast, thus widening the gap. Wouldn't be without the stackpack/lazy jack combo and it was very easy to make.
 
Niander said:
Whats wrong with using the engine to keep to windward...not a problem.
What is a problem is my autopilot veers off course ...now that is a problem!
Lazyjacks and two line reefing all done from the cockpit work very well for me.
Click to expand...
Yes, that would certainly work.

Suppose you were to shake out a couple of reefs. Would you start the engine to do that?
 
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