Main Sail Stowage

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MarTer

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We are into our first season with a Hallberg-Rassy 38 with slab reefing & are struggling a bit stowing the main. Usually it is only the two of us & were wondering what options were available to make dropping the main quicker & easier? TIA

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Perhaps this company could be contacted to get a major <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.doylesails.com/sails-stackpackmain.htm>discount</A>

Found out that lazy jacks can be very helpful indeed when shorthanded.......

Cheers, Rene

<hr width=100% size=1>Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get
 
Its already been said, I have to agree, we have lazy jacks/stack pack, drop the main halyard down the hatch ( to run easily) lift the clutch, turn head to wind and the mainsail just collapses into the bag! Makes for tidier reefing to, as a bonus.

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In the absence of a lazyjack system, just have one person right at the back of the boom, pulling the sail back as she comes down, one handful to left, one handful to right. It takes a bit of practice, but it works better than thrashing around with acres of sail while doeing the two step on the coachroof.

<hr width=100% size=1>Nickel

Being paranoid simply means - having all the facts.
 
<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

turn head to wind and the mainsail just collapses into the bag!

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Whilst not disagreeing with some of the virtues of lazyjacks, they can also have their disadvantages, as the above quote states, turn head to wind, this implies you have an engine running and are able to hold her head to wind. Unfortunately, in my experience at least if you are not pretty much exactly head to wind then the batons tend to catch on the way down making things pretty awkward.

Assuming you are dropping all sail then I would assume you have your engine on and so this is not a problem, but what if you have an engine failure and are about to make a headsail only approach to a pontoon or mooring buoy? A quick mainsail drop would probably be required and a head to wind situation would risk putting her 'in irons' not a nice situation in a crowded moorings.

Likewise, reefing under sail whilst on passage in a seamanlike manner should not require putting her head to wind. Merely sail on a close reach with genoa/jib only, ease out the main until most of the wind is out of her but not so much as it flogs itself (and you) half to death. Then pull in the reef.

In my experience both of these scenarios are not so easy with lazyjacks.

Also I would assume that the bag will increase windage?

Other than that lazyjacks are just great :)

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I have found that reefs can be pulled in and shaken out on the move. However, a full hoist or drop tends to require the boat to be turned into the wind. Adjustable lazy jacks, such as the Barton ones get around this problem I would think.

<hr width=100% size=1>Think I'll draw some little rabbits on my head, from a distance they might be mistaken for hairs.
 
The boat does not really need to be head to wind but no doubt about it the mainsail needs to be roughly parallel to the wind. By letting the main out this can be achieved on most boats at up to about 70 degress apparent. At this stage the main is approaching the spreaders so I would think not that much different to non lazybag system.

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It does need a bit of practice, but no, engine not required!

We have a fully battened mainsail, this employs cars that run in the grove of the mast, we keep them clean so they roll very smoothly. We can, lift the clutch as we go through the tack holding head to wind just long enough for the sail to drop, then continue the tack with the sail in the bag and making way under fore sail alone. I love sailing up to a bouy, I do this under main alone, once the crew has got the pickup bouy I dump the main, so depowering the boat very quickly.

Putting in a reef is tricky I will admit, but this is nothing to do with the lazyjacks or bag. The fully battened sail will not be depowered without being head to wind, as we have aft swept spreaders the main will not come forward enough. Having said that we can drop enough main halyard then with single line reefing wind in the reef plus retension the halyard very quickly. I do use the engine but can and have done it without.

As for windage, what is the problem? If you take the bag away there is a sail behind it and when the sail is down there is no more windage than a sail cover.

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The bag itself is actually a bit of a sailing advantage. It acts at the boom a bit like winglets on a keel and makes (in theory at least) for more lift from the sail. John Oakley of Dehler used to race with such a system for exactly that reason.

Never had full length battens etc myself, but I was startled how much easier life became when I painted my mast and ended up with a clean slippy mast track.

<hr width=100% size=1>this post is a personal opinion, and you should not base your actions on it.
 
This is what we do - with an added aide. We have marked the leech of the sail with alternate red and green marks (indelible pen) to show where the flakes should be....

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This brings me back to a hobbyhorse of mine. Why not heave-to ? The boat settles comfortably, with the mainsheet snug so the boom is not waving about. No engine or autopilot or hand on the tiller is required, the boat is held just off the wind so handling the main is easy - if you stand on the windward side to stow, the sail co-operates well. I have done this single handed on a small boat in a f8 (ok it wasn't a great stow !)

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I agree that with a small crew this is best. Particularly without single line reefing the boat is much more settled than motoring into the wind. I also agree with you that in general directly into the wind is a lousy heading for reefing/sail dropping particularly in a blow as the boat falls off first one way then the other.

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I'm always prepared to try somthing different; reefing the main, hove too, makes sense, and it might even work with our swept spreaders. I will admit that it is only this year that I learned how to hove too properly, I had always kept the main sheeted in to tight, but all the work is actually between the rudder and the jib, allowing the main to just sit there. I'll give it a try.

Theres no end to this learning!

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like some of the others I reef the main by sailing on the jib alone, obviously this only really tends to work with the apparent wind forward of the beam.

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My master has found it much easier to drop his main after he has successfully untied the halyard from the cleat at the bottom of the mast. For the first few weeks of his sailing career <font color=red>just after his long career in the merchant navy</font color=red>he had great difficulty stretching the halyard the necessary 40ft to get the sail down.

However using this method did of course mean the main could be hoisted in less than a nano second when releasing the bungee eye rippers from the sail.

Or you could as has been said use lazyjacks.

<hr width=100% size=1>Woof
 
If you haven't got luff slugs then I'd make them the first improvement. I do a week or 2 each year taking rookie cadets out in Fox Terrier with bolt-rope luff mainsail and I always get half of it in the sea if I have to get it down in a bit of a blow.

On my own boat I have luff slugs and lazyjacks - magic!

Geoff

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Heaving to is a good technique, as you say, especially for short handed sailing, I have done this myself. However not all boats heave to very well, some of the lighter fin keelers heaving to on a beam reach.
Personally I still prefer to reef under headsail, with the right amount of headsail the boat is travelling nice and slowly and she should not be heeling too much.

Of course use of an autopilot is also a good way to reef under sail if short handed.

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