Stackpack design reflections

[eddystone]

Sorry for bit of thread drift but do those of you with stackpacks find the sail flakes down easily into the "wings" of the pack? My old Westaway sail would have but the new Sanders one is much stiffer (Dimension Polyant something) and I'm not sure it would work.

 

[Quandary]

My current boat is the first where we have had a stackpack, the last one was just lazy jacks. The thing is two long battened strips of acrylic canvas with an open bottom, joined with acrylic straps going under the boom which have sliders for the bottom boom track. There is a flap under the zip but if water does get though it either drains away or dries off.
So, UV protection plus plenty of ventilation, are they not all like that?

 

[MoodySabre]

My current boat is the first where we have had a stackpack, the last one was just lazy jacks. The thing is two long battened strips of acrylic canvas with an open bottom, joined with acrylic straps going under the boom which have sliders for the bottom boom track. There is a flap under the zip but if water does get though it either drains away or dries off.
So, UV protection plus plenty of ventilation, are they not all like that?

No. Mine has a nylon bottom that goes in the groove with the bolt rope. No straps underneath the boom. There are zips in the bottom of the edges for the reefing lines to be positioned wherever you want them.

 

[Tranona]

My current boat is the first where we have had a stackpack, the last one was just lazy jacks. The thing is two long battened strips of acrylic canvas with an open bottom, joined with acrylic straps going under the boom which have sliders for the bottom boom track. There is a flap under the zip but if water does get though it either drains away or dries off.
So, UV protection plus plenty of ventilation, are they not all like that?

No, there are many different designs - something which i think many do not appreciate - depending on your boom st up. I had one of the first stackpacks made by Kemps in the early 90s for a solid wooden boom and we attached it using two plastic channels screwed to the side and bolt ropes. So the stack pack was effectively in two halves held together at the aft end by the fixed end of the zip and stiffened with battens down the length of each side. The style described by moodysabre is quite common as it works with many modern booms with bolt rope foot on the mainsail.

Kemps have just made a new one but have converted to loose footed sail so it is now attached to the boom with slugs along part of the foot in the old sail track, then open with mesh panels and a strap at the aft end. Again stiffened by battens. Also has flap over the zip. Having these custom features which came out of discussions with Rob, cost very little extra because as noted earlier, the majority of the cost is in labour and these variations add little extra labour or materials.