Lazy Jacks... the good, the bad and the ugly

[Quattro 15]

Thinking about installing for next summer.  Id like people's opinion on them.  It'll be great for single or short handed sailing (which is likely to be the main use), but is there a down side?   I hear a lot about the hoist and drop of the main, and sometimes getting a bit of a tangle.  Any thing else?   Has anyone installed and thought it not worth the effort, hassle?

[Vorpal Blade 89]

A well set up system will make your life easy.

Our main is around 50sqm and its a one person op to both hoist and stow, and when you put in a reef it controls all the loose sail. 

 

[Kevin McCready 83]

My feeling, subject to being corrected, is there is less need the smaller the boat. I wouldn't bother on my 30 footer. They've been great on a bigger boat though.

[Black Panther 1,776]

Go the whole hog and put them onto a stacpac type boom cover. Wonderful  

[Terry B 73]

I have a 29 foot yacht. When I bought her she had no lazy jacks. I sail a lot on my own and the sail hanging all over the place when dropping the main was annoying. Not life threatening, just annoying. Difficult to see past/around when going into crowded anchorages.

So I looked on-line and found & made (myself) a simple system that goes forward to the mast once you've tied the sail to the boom.

Had it eight years and I really rate it. Very easy to use and I've yet to have to replace any of the cordage. It means I can tidy up once I'm anchored - not when I'm bouncing around on the deck. I am in my sixties so I'm a little more cautious than I used to be.  And no need to cut holes in the current sail cover - just pull the jacks forward to the mast before putting the cover on.

It's not deployed when pulling up the main (that would be a PTA trying to avoid the fully battened main catching on jacks every metre!)

And the thing is it costs sod all to set up (at least on the 29 footer).

 

Sooooo, as you can tell, I'm a fan😃

[Quattro 15]

Good stuff, thanks for the comments.  Yup, I'm closing in on 60ish, and feeling the need to make life easier on a 32 footer.  Who has the set up KM?   Local chandler or self sourced?

[vesper1 3]

I had lazy jacks for several years on my Townson 38 and honestly it was one of the best days work ever getting rid of them, not worth the hassle better off without them.

[bigal.nz 62]

We have lazy jacks, but not the stack pack - they are a pain in this configuration so we are getting a stack pack built. Will let you know the outcome once we are out of lock down.

I too have heard about the cordage getting caught (and we have a fully battened main) - apparently the size & type of the cordage needs to be right. For us 6mm sashcord on the aft most line was recommended - anything smaller increases chance of tangle (40ft boat).

[ex TL systems 63]

I have had them on many different boats from 28 to 46 feet and would not be without them. Always leave them up too. If you have full battens and good cars with a lazy bag you can just let the halyard go and the sail drops into the bag. Too easy. Can also use as a back I up or replacement for the topping lift too. If the batten ends get caught on the way up you can pull the cords forward but I just go head to wind and watch what I am doing   

[Toltec 7]

I put them on my Chico which has a short boom I find them great just drop the main and clean up at anchor.I have a shock cord system and let them go and have a couple of plastic cover hooks by the goose neck to hook them over. I started out with the blocks  tied to the spreaders .I found that if I moved the blocks away from the mast it worked a whole lot better and weren’t prone to slap against the mast.Ive have had the mast out a couple of years ago so mounted the blocks on the spreaders .Just makes life that little easier 

[Terry B 73]

Hiya Toltec, enjoying the lockdown? Or as a mate calls it, "The Great Suppression".

My system is very much like this pic attached. And, like Toltec, attached to the spreaders, not the mast at the top end - gives a much better angle for the sail to both fall into and raise out of (if you want to leave the jacks up).

You can add as many extension lines at the boom as you want - depends on the length of boom I guess. 

My 'tie off' is on the mast, not the boom - that way it's never covered with a sail when you're trying to get at it.

There's a small and cheap block  on the underside of each spreader. Then a block (but you can use frictionless rings now, or no block at all) on the next join down from the spreader. The rest are just lines running through each other.

Best way to set up is to attach the spreader blocks and then tie temporary knots/loops and tie off on boom - and let the main flop into it - you'll soon see what needs adjusting before you set it up properly.

When taking the jacks down, you untie at mast, reach toward stern and grab the nearest lazy line and the whole thing comes forward easily - I lie mine under the s/steel hook thingie that holds the forard reefing lines down. Simply tighten, and get a brew!

lazy1.pdf

[Terry B 73]

lazy1.pdf

[Terry B 73]

Sorry, here's the file - forgot it needs to be jpeg, not pdf

[wheels 544]

I set ours up pretty much the same as the Pic above. We had two levels of spreaders however, so the set up was slightly more complex.
The only issue I had, was that the Main was a high ratio cut sail. So the top narrowed down very quickly. This resulted in the very top batten often getting caught in the jack line as I raised the main and if we were off the wind too much. Like for instance, we may have been under Headsail only and decided to raise the Main, but didn't want to round up into the wind and have the Headsail flap about against the Inner Forestay. I could never quite get the mounting positions just right. So in the end, I tied bungy to the Jack line and the opposite end on the lower spreader out wideWhen the jack line was pulled taught, the Bungy would allow the jack line to pull aft and in toward the Sail. When slackened off,  bungy pulled the jack line out and forward toward the mast. So I only pulled the jack line tight when about to lower the Main. The rest of the time, the bungy kept the Jack line clear.
I also had a stack pack. Like BP, I cannot oversell this idea. It is simply life changing to be able to just drop the Halyard and let it all fall into the bag, most especially if the wind is up.

[Young Entertainer 62]

we have the same setup,  pull the lines forward when we are sailing/racing,  never leave them out when the cover is on,  dont put them out to raise the main,  but do put them out to lower,  on my last boat (1020) i made them strong enough to hold the boom up for the drop and it saved having a topper.  Current boat has a hard vang so not required to hold the boom up and do work slightly better when a bit looser.  We will strip the boat for racing but somehow the lazy jacks get to stay

[Quattro 15]

Good stuff.  Eager to get on to it once the lockdown is over.  May have more questions then but thanks to all who responded.   

[Quattro 15]

Was told about having them out under the spreaders, so seems the way to go.   One question though.... Is the halyard part yoked near the top from two lines, down to one, or are there two separate lines to the cleat on the mast?

[Terry B 73]

Mine has them separate. Less blocks/yokes, less friction. At the spreader attachment, mine are about a metre and a bit apart from each other - can't really see the point in yoking them but others might think differently? Plus, when not deployed and not yoked, they don't add to the tangle slapping the mast at 2am as they're not near the mast.

And I can tighten or loosen each side easily (they can need adjusting a little because they're attached at the spreaders - if you deploy them on a broad reach for instance, then when the boom comes back to the centre when you drop the sail - one side will be taut, the other slightly looser).

But they both tie off together on the same cleat.

[Quattro 15]

2 hours ago, Terry B said:

Mine has them separate. Less blocks/yokes, less friction. At the spreader attachment, mine are about a metre and a bit apart from each other - can't really see the point in yoking them but others might think differently? Plus, when not deployed and not yoked, they don't add to the tangle slapping the mast at 2am as they're not near the mast.

And I can tighten or loosen each side easily (they can need adjusting a little because they're attached at the spreaders - if you deploy them on a broad reach for instance, then when the boom comes back to the centre when you drop the sail - one side will be taut, the other slightly looser).

But they both tie off together on the same cleat.

Very good points,  thanks TB.  Absolutely hate the mast slap at 2am.  

[Frank 185]

On 5/04/2020 at 1:48 PM, Kevin McCready said:

My feeling, subject to being corrected, is there is less need the smaller the boat. I wouldn't bother on my 30 footer. They've been great on a bigger boat though.

Tend to agree