Mainsail stack-pack cover with a high boom - how to close cover

[dunedin]

Any brilliant solutions for a stack-pack style sail cover on a boat with a high-ish boom?

The boat has a fully battened mainsail, which is great for sailing efficiency but more hassle for stowage.
Currently is rigged with lazyjacks (ie the strings only), which means need to gather / fold and apply sail ties to a large sail each time drop the sall, which is very tricky single or short handed. Then add conventional sail cover over the top (this latter is easy to do as fastens along the bottom)

Clearly a stack-pack style cover would be much preferable for controlling the sail when hoisting / dropping. But wonder how difficult it might be to get the zip closure lined up and pulled, at a high stretch. (Presumably opening would be easy enough with a rope extension on the zipper)

Presumably somebody has come up with a neat solution for this, which retains the stack-pack benefits but gets the zipper (or other fastenings) within easy reach from deck?

Over to the wisdom of the forum .........

 

[jdc]

Well the only neat solution I found is getting a teenage son to walk along the boom and pull the zip. Doesn't work single-handed...

 

[lpdsn]

My approach is to unzip and zip up in harbour.

To zip up the first couple of metres I have to balance on a narrow ledge to reach the string tied to the zip. I can just about do it myself, but if I slip I'd damage the sprayhood or go over the side or both. I very rarely have crew with long enough arms to reach (in fact I can't remember one off the top of my head) and anyway I wouldn't want to risk either them or the sprayhood. Waiting until I've tied up allows me to do it easily.

Once I've got the sail down and tucked in the odd errant flake it and reef line, it usually stays in whilst getting in to harbour.

 

[dunedin]

Well the only neat solution I found is getting a teenage son to walk along the boom and pull the zip. Doesn't work single-handed...

Its a good plan - except that current ships boy has grown up too much and gone off doing other things, and growing a teenage grandson has a longish lead time (c 14 years?)

 

[knuterikt]

I have have seen (but not used) stack packs with the zipper on one side..

 

[stranded]

As ipdsn said - I was taught you should never stow the sail anyway until safely tied up in case needed in emergency. Once in, its just abtightrope walk with the boom pulled as low as poss. It's a moderate pain now - including having to climb a couple of.mast steps to attach/unattach halyard, but I guess the day will come when we have to.contemplate a change to in boom furling.

 

[Skylark]

My boat has a very high boom, as a cruiser it was one of the reasons for buying her. The main is new, hence stiff and and is difficult to stack short handed. The sail bag doesn't use a convenional zip it all. Instead, one side wraps over the other and is fastened by sewn-in ties around a small loop, low, near the boom and back to the edge of the fold-over fabric. At sea, I can only ever tie the front two or three ties. Those further aft are simply out of my reach. The boat has an A frame, arch, over the cockpit and I climb on it to complete the job once in harbour. All in all, it's fairly difficult but once done looks neat. Like others have said, I tend to free the bag and use sail ties before heading to sea.

 

[MoodySabre]

I have have seen (but not used) stack packs with the zipper on one side..

A friend has one like that. Think it was on his Bene from new (he just bought the boat 4 years old). Works well and the top is flat so won't hold the rain. Even so you still need to get the sail down fully so the OPs problem is not solved.

 

[dom]

I have have seen (but not used) stack packs with the zipper on one side..

I had one of those; easy to zip back up, but there's a big flappy bit when open which needs to be tied down to avoid snagging things. On balance I didn't like it.

I have now reverted to a conventional top zip. The procedure is (a) lower the boom as far as it wIll go, (be careful not to to over compress the strut kicker where one exists), (b) move the boom over the coamings (highest point with winches for an added lift!) and then zip up. Then it's two steps up the mast to disconnect the main halliard and attach the front section of the cover.

 

[soapbox440]

I use the boat hook.

 

[Sandgrounder]

I don't have a stack pack so can't help on the zipper issue but I do sail single handed and have to deal with the sail control issue.
My approach would be to get the sail under control and not bother with the zip until back in harbour/ marina etc. I use an Octopus which seems ideal for single handing. It's two lengths of shock cord fastened at either end of the boom and knotted together three or four times along its length with a hook fixed to one side of each "loop". It takes about thirty seconds to get a rough stow which can then be properly sorted when back on the mooring.

 

[Concerto]

My thoughts would be to have the stack pack made about a foot longer than it needs to be and keep the outboard end of the zipper permanently connected, preferably stitched closed. Then use a simple line with a pulley at each end to open and close the zip. The only other thing you may need to do is move your reef lines slightly forward of the then of the boom so they can be used with the zipper open but still connected.

 

[mjcoon]

My thoughts would be to have the stack pack made about a foot longer than it needs to be and keep the outboard end of the zipper permanently connected, preferably stitched closed. Then use a simple line with a pulley at each end to open and close the zip.

In my chartering experience that is how the zipper is arranged. But the pulley idea will be difficult because to close the zip the extension part has to be held out beyond the end of the boom. If you just pull on the lanyard attached to the slider the whole extension just folds over and you end up pulling the slider the wrong way along it. A sort of batten might help, but I doubt it. Or, try a line from the extension temporarily attached to the backstay to keep it tensioned?

Mike.

 

[oldvarnish]

Assuming you can get the zip started - I've tied a length of string to mine and just walk back/forward with it.

It helps to have a slack sail bag. I replaced mine last year and insisted it wasn't made as tight as a teenager's jeans. Helps a lot.

 

[prv]

As ipdsn said - I was taught you should never stow the sail anyway until safely tied up in case needed in emergency.

It's a good principle, and one I used to follow on Kindred Spirit where the main was necessary for control and quite easy to hoist.

On Ariam, though, hoisting the mainsail forms no part of my plan for immediate response to engine failure.

Rolling out some jib - yes.

Dropping the anchor - yes (and on Kindred Spirit where it was stowed on deck, I sometimes used to undo the lashings as a precaution before entering confined waters)

Picking up a fender or two and grabbing a pontoon or another boat - yes, on some rivers tightly hemmed in with moorings

But hoisting our fully-battened main between lazy jacks requires the boat to be precisely head-to-wind, is a time-consuming operation involving various fiddling with sheet and topping lift and kicker, and cannot be done from the helm. Once it's done, the boat will tend to travel faster than is comfortable in tight spaces, is more complex to manoeuvre because there are two sails to worry about instead of one, and can't lose the sail area again quickly either. All in all it's a terrible course of action if I lost engine power in a river or harbour, and one I wouldn't consider for a moment. So having applied two minutes of actual thought to that traditional principle, I zip up Ariam's stackpack with a clear conscience

Pete

 

[horatio_nelson]

Best to have the choice of either or both, seeing as they're there

 

[stranded]

It's a good principle, and one I used to follow on Kindred Spirit where the main was necessary for control and quite easy to hoist.

On Ariam, though, hoisting the mainsail forms no part of my plan for immediate response to engine failure.

Rolling out some jib - yes.

Dropping the anchor - yes (and on Kindred Spirit where it was stowed on deck, I sometimes used to undo the lashings as a precaution before entering confined waters)

Picking up a fender or two and grabbing a pontoon or another boat - yes, on some rivers tightly hemmed in with moorings

But hoisting our fully-battened main between lazy jacks requires the boat to be precisely head-to-wind, is a time-consuming operation involving various fiddling with sheet and topping lift and kicker, and cannot be done from the helm. Once it's done, the boat will tend to travel faster than is comfortable in tight spaces, is more complex to manoeuvre because there are two sails to worry about instead of one, and can't lose the sail area again quickly either. All in all it's a terrible course of action if I lost engine power in a river or harbour, and one I wouldn't consider for a moment. So having applied two minutes of actual thought to that traditional principle, I zip up Ariam's stackpack with a clear conscience

Pete

Hmm.. A bit convinced and certainly something to think about - though reckon I could let the lazyjack fly and get a third reefed main up in less than a minute (with electric help and excellent batten cars) in moderate conditions. Gonna try next time down out of interest - though it's academic as I'm not going tightrope walking along the coaming at full stretch to zip it in any kind of sea!

 

[prv]

Hmm.. A bit convinced and certainly something to think about - though reckon I could let the lazyjack fly and get a third reefed main up in less than a minute (with electric help and excellent batten cars) in moderate conditions.

As I hope I indicated by referring to our previous boat, my decision on what makes sense on Ariam is not going to apply everywhere. I'm not suggesting that everyone else should zip up their sail covers in order to stick two fingers up at a generally seamanlike principle.

On the other hand, your "less than a minute" seems rather relaxed for, say, the Itchen that I motor up and down. If your engine failed there and your response was to spend 45 seconds winching a mainsail up, in anything but very calm conditions and slack tide you'd have already collided with a pile, a moored boat, a disused barge, or a big steel ABP buoy.

Or for an extreme example, try Lymington upstream of Berthon

Pete

 

[stranded]

It's a good principle, and one I used to follow on Kindred Spirit where the main was necessary for control and quite easy to hoist.

On Ariam, though, hoisting the mainsail forms no part of my plan for immediate response to engine failure.

Rolling out some jib - yes.

Dropping the anchor - yes (and on Kindred Spirit where it was stowed on deck, I sometimes used to undo the lashings as a precaution before entering confined waters)

Picking up a fender or two and grabbing a pontoon or another boat - yes, on some rivers tightly hemmed in with moorings

But hoisting our fully-battened main between lazy jacks requires the boat to be precisely head-to-wind, is a time-consuming operation involving various fiddling with sheet and topping lift and kicker, and cannot be done from the helm. Once it's done, the boat will tend to travel faster than is comfortable in tight spaces, is more complex to manoeuvre because there are two sails to worry about instead of one, and can't lose the sail area again quickly either. All in all it's a terrible course of action if I lost engine power in a river or harbour, and one I wouldn't consider for a moment. So having applied two minutes of actual thought to that traditional principle, I zip up Ariam's stackpack with a clear conscience

Pete

As I hope I indicated by referring to our previous boat, my decision on what makes sense on Ariam is not going to apply everywhere. I'm not suggesting that everyone else should zip up their sail covers in order to stick two fingers up at a generally seamanlike principle.

On the other hand, your "less than a minute" seems rather relaxed for, say, the Itchen that I motor up and down. If your engine failed there and your response was to spend 45 seconds winching a mainsail up, in anything but very calm conditions and slack tide you'd have already collided with a pile, a moored boat, a disused barge, or a big steel ABP buoy.

Or for an extreme example, try Lymington upstream of Berthon

Pete

I'm sure you're right. Still, not going to be in any greater danger by having it unzipped.

 

[prv]

Still, not going to be in any greater danger by having it unzipped.

Very true .

And I do often go up and down the river with it unzipped, because it's easier if I'm alone to do it while tied up, or simply because nobody on board has bothered to close it yet.

I've just heard too many people arguing as a matter of unchangeable dogma that it is always dangerous and unseamanlike to have a sail covered on a moving boat. And like most statements of the absolute in sailing, it's not necessarily correct.

Pete