New Stack Pack fitted

[Tranona]

I have lazy jacks only. To avoid them snagging the sail battens when hoisting the sail, I pull the lazy jacks forward to the mast and only deploy them before lowering the sail.

Can you do that with a stack pack? All the ones I have looked at in marinas look as if the lazy jacks for the stack pack are fixed. How do people hoist the sail without them snagging (other than by motoring dead to windward)?

You can do exactly the same with a stackpack. The lazy jacks are adjustable in the same way. I drop the jacks which lowers the bag and that makes snagging the lazy jacks less likely. You could pull them forward, but I find with the halyard and topping lift taken to the cockpit the boom can be controlled (if head to wind) so snags are rare.

 

[dom]

I have lazy jacks only. To avoid them snagging the sail battens when hoisting the sail, I pull the lazy jacks forward to the mast and only deploy them before lowering the sail.

Can you do that with a stack pack? All the ones I have looked at in marinas look as if the lazy jacks for the stack pack are fixed. How do people hoist the sail without them snagging (other than by motoring dead to windward)?

Agreed, it can be a faff, especially with a fully battened system.

One approach to widening the slot is to attach the jacks to a spreader as opposed to the mast itself, but a rigger told me insurance companies can question this setup if a failure of one of these spreaders is implicated in a subsequent claim.

Another approach is to drill a vertical hole through the appropriate spreaders, then run the jacks through them and onward to a point up the mast.

Or finally, run two bungee cords with a metal end rings over the appropriate section of the jacks and then attach to spreaders. One can thereby open the gap just enough to solve the problem!

 

[Poignard]

Agreed, it can be a faff, especially with a fully battened system.

One approach to widening the slot is to attach the jacks to a spreader as opposed to the mast itself, but a rigger told me insurance companies can question this setup if a failure of one of these spreaders is implicated in a subsequent claim.

Another approach is to drill a vertical hole through the appropriate spreaders, then run the jacks through them and onward to a point up the mast.

Or finally, run two bungee cords with a metal end rings over the appropriate section of the jacks and then attach to spreaders. One can thereby open the gap just enough to solve the problem!

Thanks for that good, practical advice. Mrs Parsifal keeps on at me to get a stack pack as she has terrifying visions of me being hurled off the coachroof when passing gaskets (she's not the only one! ) but I wouldn't want anything that made it essential to start the engine and motor dead to windward before I could raise the sail.

 

[Lucky Duck]

One approach to widening the slot is to attach the jacks to a spreader as opposed to the mast itself, but a rigger told me insurance companies can question this setup if a failure of one of these spreaders is implicated in a subsequent claim.

Mine came 'straight out of the box' this way, a neighbouring boat has a similar set up on his new replacement mast!

 

[dom]

Mrs Parsifal keeps on at me to get a stack pack as she has terrifying visions of me being hurled off the coachroof when passing gaskets (she's not the only one! ) but I wouldn't want anything that made it essential to start the engine and motor dead to windward before I could raise the sail.

I'm fully with her on this Crawling around in knee-pads, then tethered to the mast to mess around when the sea is running is a right PITA. I also 'try' to attach the main halyard in port to prevent swinging around the goose neck at sea :ambivalence: BTW, with a stack-pack (especially if combined with slippy cars (though by no means always the pricey roller jobs) one can pretty much open the lifting angle to anything one could do without them, and dropping is a real luxury -- flake the halyard, open the clutch and pour that cold beer!

Mine came 'straight out of the box' this way, a neighbouring boat has a similar set up on his new replacement mast!

I know it's pretty standard, but when you say 'out of the box', do you mean manufacturer or dealer? It might be worth checking with the mast OEM, as if a prob conversion to option "2" or "3" would not be hard? Incidentally, assuming attachment is not too far outboard I very much doubt there will be any prob at all.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Selden mast, came on the same lorry as the boat.

IIRC my last boat had the same, or very similar set up and that had also had a Selden mast

 

[dom]

Selden mast, came on the same lorry as the boat.

IIRC my last boat had the same, or very similar set up and that had also had a Selden mast

If Selden fitted it that way I wouldn't worry in the slightest.

 

[Daydream believer]

I changed my zip starting point from boom end to mast. Trying to locate a zip standing on the cockpit seating whilst holding a swinging boom ( even with topping lift & mainsheet tight it still swings a bit) is difficult.
Starting at the mast I can hold the mast & get the sail down, Stuff the main part in the cover & hold on whilst zipping up then work my way aft. This saves an extra trip back & forth along the deck.
One year off Barfleur my wife kicked the mainsheet block as she tried to locate the boom end zip & as it released the mainsheet the boom swung her over the guard rail when she was standing on the seats. She was able to hold on to the boom & as the boat rolled back she was flung onto the cockpit on the opposite side. She could as easily have ended up overboard in a heavy sea. Soon after I changed the system

 

[MoodySabre]

A lot of lazyjacks are set too high at the aft end. There is not much sail here and so the aft ring/pulley can be set quite low. This reduce the chance of snagging the lazyjacks with batten ends.

 

[johnalison]

Or finally, run two bungee cords with a metal end rings over the appropriate section of the jacks and then attach to spreaders. One can thereby open the gap just enough to solve the problem!

I have a minor form of this, but only to keep the lines from slapping against the mast when sailing. The alternative, of course, is to get a proper boat with a tiller, when you can steer with you legs while hoisting the main and thus keeping the boat to windward.

 

[Tranona]

I have a minor form of this, but only to keep the lines from slapping against the mast when sailing. The alternative, of course, is to get a proper boat with a tiller, when you can steer with you legs while hoisting the main and thus keeping the boat to windward.

Why not just engage the autopilot if the boat is too frisky to hold itself into the wind?

 

[john_morris_uk]

I changed my zip starting point from boom end to mast. Trying to locate a zip standing on the cockpit seating whilst holding a swinging boom ( even with topping lift & mainsheet tight it still swings a bit) is difficult.
Starting at the mast I can hold the mast & get the sail down, Stuff the main part in the cover & hold on whilst zipping up then work my way aft. This saves an extra trip back & forth along the deck.
One year off Barfleur my wife kicked the mainsheet block as she tried to locate the boom end zip & as it released the mainsheet the boom swung her over the guard rail when she was standing on the seats. She was able to hold on to the boom & as the boat rolled back she was flung onto the cockpit on the opposite side. She could as easily have ended up overboard in a heavy sea. Soon after I changed the system

I can understand your decision.

On Serendipity, we have a centre cockpit so standing on the aft deck to reach the zip at chest/waist height is rather less of a problem. Zipping the thing up always seems to involve one foot on the compass binnacle and one foot on the cockpit coaming but there are advantages in having a big wide fat heavy cruising boat sometimes...

 

[Bish]

Since buying my Scanyacht 391 at the back end of last season, I have been steadily working through fixing or replacing various items. Earlier this season, the zips on the stack pack started to part company with the cover itself. The cover had clearly been repaired more than once and some of those repairs looked a little crude! All in all, I decided a new stack pack was probably a better bet than further repairs.

Yesterday, I went down to Gosport to fit the brand new stack pack from Kemp Sails. Why is it that any task that feels like it should be fairly straightforward will actually turn out to be anything but?

Getting the old stack pack off was actually the biggest challenge, it was catching on just about everything :disgust:

Anyway, finally managed it and it does look good! Hopefully will be showing it off on the water this weekend

Sounds good! Love to see some pics as I'll need to do the same on our 391 in the future.