Lazyjacks

Norman_E

Norman_E

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My lazyjacks always used to give me a problem when raising the mainsail. The reason was that with they are attached either side of the mast, so that it was necessary to raise the sail through a narrow slot between them, with the result that if the wind shifted at all or the helmsman did not keep the boat absolutely dead on a head to wind course the batten ends would get caught in the lazyjacks. On my recent cruise I had an idea to fix the problem.

I made up two pieces of thin rope with a snap link on one end and a bowline with long loop on the other. Hauled up the mast on the bosuns chair by two helpful sailors from another yacht I passed the bowline loop round a shroud and pulled the whole cord through the loop. The stainless snap link then went around the lazyjack above the top junction. Done on both sides the result was to pull the top of the lazyjacks three feet apart at a level about one metre above the first spreaders. Problem solved. It is now very easy to get the main up without entangling it with the lazyjacks, and as a bonus the sailbag is held wider open, which assists the sail in getting into it when dropped.

Why did it take me so long to think of it, or are there any known snags to this idea?
 
I sympathise with the problem. I leave the mainsheet off when raising the main to help the sail stay in line but it doesn't always work.

Your idea seems OK except for the possibility of chafe from the snaplink either on the lazyjack or the sail.

If it goes wrong let us know/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I take it you couldn't have just slackened off your topping lifts and hence the lazyjacks? Do you have a gas strut supporting the boom or no? Having someone slacken the lee lift works fine, leaving the weather one holding the boom. Having someone pull the main away from the mast and freeing the sail is also good if you have the spare bodies.

You can always put some sort of baggywrinkle on the snap shackles to stop them chafing.
 
I had been suffering the same problem for a few years. Then when taking friends out for a sail he pointed out an equally obvious solution he'd come up with. This is to attach an additional line to the aftermost lazyjack lines through the other lines to the mast. So rather than hauling them apart, as in your solution, this hauls them forward, which clears all the battens which used to give me trouble. Why I could not have thought of that I don't know, but I often find that having different people on the boat is a great way to see things afresh or come up with new solutions to problems.
 
I just un-hook mine when hoisting the main, simple really, just clip them back on when lowering. I have also worked out a system of hauling the lazyjacks back to the mast on another line when hoisting and letting it go when lowering.

You could also lower the point of attachment to the mast to abour 2m above the boom, this should also work?
 
Slackening the topping lift tensions the lazyjacks, but raising it does not overcome the problem caused by attachment to the mast leaving only a six inch gap between them at the level of the top junction. I could slacken the lazyjacks from the mast, but that required me to go to the mast on both port and starboard sides to re-tension the lazyjacks after raising the sail.
I generally have only one crew member (my wife) who steers the boat whilst I hoist the sail, and I could not rely on her keeping the wind on the right side if I only slackened the lazyjacks on one side. My problems were always made worse by her failure to keep the boat fully head to wind.

With my new system in place I can leave the adjustment alone when sailing, and only need to draw the lazyjacks forward when I am in port and need to put the boom tent on.

Since doing this I have seen a boat (I think it was a Beneteau Cyclades 43) where the lazyjacks appeared to be hung from the speaders, about half way out, giving the same effect as my solution, but also risking an undesirable downward pull on the speaders if the weight of the boom and dropped sail comes onto the lazyjacks due to a slack topping lift.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Since doing this I have seen a boat (I think it was a Beneteau Cyclades 43) where the lazyjacks appeared to be hung from the speaders, about half way out, giving the same effect as my solution, but also risking an undesirable downward pull on the speaders if the weight of the boom and dropped sail comes onto the lazyjacks due to a slack topping lift.

[/ QUOTE ]I've seen this a few times. As well as your point about spreader load it also occured to me that the tension on the lazyjacks would change as the boom swings about (as they would not have a common pivot point). It'd be nice to hear from someone who has this setup and can speak from experience regarding the advantages/disadvantages.

An earlier post mentioned lowering the point at which the jacks attach to the mast. I tried this some years ago and found that, if the attachment points where too low, then this would defeat the object as part of the main would tend to drop over the side of one of the jacks rather than between them.
 
A boat in our marina has lazy jacks and has bungee cord from the top lazy jack pulley to the goose-neck on both sides of the sail. When he wants the lazy jacks out of the way he just eases them out and the bungee cord pulls them forward and down. Would post a photo but he has gone to the Red Sea for the summer!!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
. It'd be nice to hear from someone who has this setup and can speak from experience regarding the advantages/disadvantages.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've had this arrangment (lazy jacks from the spreaders) on my old Dufour, and it rarely caused any problems. In any case, I copied the setup on my present boat, and no mishaps so far. As to the downward forces on the spreaders, they pale into insignificance compared with the compression forces pushing towards the mast.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Since doing this I have seen a boat (I think it was a Beneteau Cyclades 43) where the lazyjacks appeared to be hung from the speaders, about half way out, giving the same effect as my solution, but also risking an undesirable downward pull on the speaders if the weight of the boom and dropped sail comes onto the lazyjacks due to a slack topping lift.

[/ QUOTE ]

My lazyjacks are rigged from the spreaders and work fine. I don't think the loads are very great (fairly thin string which would break if they were), but I have an unusual "belt and braces" arrangement of both a rod kicker and a topping lift so that the boom dropping is not really a consideration.
 
I would be very wary of this arrangement if your standing rigging is like mine, but it is safe if your spreaders are supported against being pulled down, by having the shrouds physically attached at the spreader ends so as to resist any downward pull. On my boat the cap shrouds and intermediates are continuous. They simply pass though the spreader ends, and all the bottle-screws are at deck level, therefore there is little to prevent a spreader being bent downwards if any force is applied.

With discontinuous rigging there are bottle-screws aloft and the spreaders are better equipped to take a downward load from the lazyjacks. My lazyjacks are 6mm polyester and could very easily pull a spreader out of alignment if they were attached.
 
On my dad's boat the lazyjacks don't end at the spreaders but pass through a hole about 1/3 of the way out and then attach to the mast above the spreaders.
 
That's a fair point. My lazy jacks are pretty thin, 3 or 4mm from memory, but if used, say, as an emergency handhold by a falling heavy person, could still apply a fair force to their attachments before breaking. (OTOH I generally single hand and everything's led back to the cockpit so there should be a greatly reduced - but not zero - risk of anything like that.)

In fact, my spreader end fittings clamp firmly on to the cap shrouds, so for me it's probably not an issue anyway.
 
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