Lazy Jacks

[Roger Long]

As promised down in the reefing thread, here are some thoughts on Lazy Jacks.

They are indespensable for lowering sails without having it turn into a Chinese fire drill. I couldn't sail without them single handed as I often am in a busy harbor. They make raising the sail too much of a pain to bother with however under the same conditions. Unless you have someone at the helm who knows how to steer back and forth at just the right moment or a spare hand to guide the leech, the batten ends will catch in them.

My solution is to stow them after the sail ties are on and re-deploy just before lowering. It only takes a minute and saves on chafe, slatting, and interferrence with reefing.

I'm a minimalist when it comes to the design of this gear as it doesn't take much to control the sail. I have a peeve with the "Lazy Jack Kits" I see. Smart salesman will sell you stuff you don't need and blocks in these rigs sure fall into the unnecessary expense category. Worse, they are wearing on your sails and making more slatting noise.

Here is how mine are rigged. Reefing hooks make this set up work especially well:

The standing parts that come down from the mast end in eyes with the smallest thimble I can get into the rope. I tried nylon but melted them rigging and unrigging too fast. Using a S.S. thimble a size too small for the rope works well and leaves plenty of rope bulk to protect the sail. Soft 1/4" dacron 3 strand is fine for a 32 foot boat. The lazy jacks end at eyestraps outboard, run through the standing parts coming down from the mast, and then to fairleads forward. I've been using thimbles lashed into a boom sail slide each side but will install something on the boom next year. This will be a pair of cheekblocks the smallest bullet blocks the line will go through secured with eyestraps.

There is a cleat on each side about 18" back from the gooseneck. To stow, I just grab the two legs, pull them forward and hook under the reefing hooks. Then pull the line tight and cleat. To deploy, unhook, pull tight, coil line and hang on cleats.

Having jacks that stow this way also makes putting the sail cover on a snap. I've seen covers with cut outs for the Lazy Jacks but the ones I've seen leave some sail exposed to UV and having a cover modified this way would cost more than it's worth.

 

[Tim R.]

Very similar to my econo-jacks Roger. Nice write up.

 

[firehoser75]

I Agree

Roger,
My set up came with the boat when I bought her new, so the sail cover has "holes" for the jacks to pass through. Prior to raising the main sail, I pull the lazy jacks forward and hook them onto a cleat on the mast near the goose neck and take out any slack. They are then out of the way completely for any sail activity. Just prior to lowering the sail, I go forward to the mast and release the lazy jacks and ready them to do their job. I agree, they sure do make handling the main a whole lot easier than trying to do it without them.
Great explanation.
Tom

 

[sailingdog]

Roger-

Here's what I did for lazy jacks on my boat earlier this year. It's pretty similar to what you've described.

One of my goals, as part of leading the halyards aft project, was setting up a new lazy jack system on the Pretty Gee. The original system only had two legs and really didn’t do a very good job of controlling and containing the main sail. This past week, I finished setting up the new lazy jacks and a new main sail furling system that does away with the need for sail ties.

The furling system consists of two pieces of shock cord run along the boom through four padeyes on each side of the boom. The padeyes are pop riveted to the boom. On one side, the shock cord has a hook setup on each segment between padeyes. To furl the sail all you have to do is reach over the boom, grab the shock cord on one side and attach it to the hook that is on the shock cord on the other side. This should keep the sail on top of the boom since the shock cords are attached along the boom, and removes the need for separate sail ties.

The padeyes are also attachment points for the new four-leg lazy jack setup. I added a block to the padeyes on the mast and ran some 5 mm line to them. I tied a section of line to the first two padeyes on each side, and a second piece of line to the second pair of padeyes on each side. Then I tied a bowline in each end of a shorter line, around the two fixed lines on each side. The long line running up the mast to the block was then tied around the top-most, short line, and the setup looks much like this drawing.

Both of these changes should help a lot when singlehanding the boat. Trying to furl the sail quickly was previously an issue for me, since I’m not tall enough to reach around the sail that easily.

The total materials for the project was:

10 Padeyes
20 3/16" x 1/4" stainless steel pop rivets
2 Harken Micro blocks
6 1" stainless steel rings
100' 3/16" line
Lanocote

 

[caguy]

I am able to leave my lazyjacks in place. They are tight enough that they contain the sail but loose enough for the battens to pass without hanging up if I am hoisting into the wind. Our final channel at MDR is at an angle that the sails can be raised in the final minutes before going out into open ocean.
When I lower the sails I lift the boom enough to clear my head, this loosens the lazyjacks even more so that they drape under the edge of the sail cover with little interference.
Frank

 

[Roger Long]

Trying to furl the sail quickly was previously an issue for me, since I’m not tall enough to reach around the sail that easily.

That does bring up an important point in planning a Lazy Jack system. My boat is of a size (32 feet) where the sail is easy to reach and furl. I just need enough containment to keep the sail from falling on guests heads, snagging on cabin top winches, and held up out of the way enough to run back to the wheel if I need to dodge a lobster pot (about an every 30 second occurance here in Maine). I'm generally putting sail ties on less than a minute after lowering though. A two leg system works fine for me. It isn't real neat but I can leave the sail in the jacks with good visibility for long periods when things are hectic.

On larger boats or those with high booms or center cockpits, greater containment is worth the additional complication of a rig like yours.

Mine is actually a three leg rig now. Here is how I made it quickly and easily stowable.

The lower eyes that hold the aft legs are simple eye splices without thimbles and it works fine. The line just runs through so the dual leg lies flat and tight against the boom when I pull the jacks forward into the reefing hooks to stow. The upper eyes on the standing parts have the smallest S.S. thimble and eye I can work into the 1/4" dacron line.

 

[Roger Long]

I am able to leave my lazyjacks in place.

I can too but it's a pain. It sounds like you are also sailing primarily in and out of the same place. In my cruising, I encounter many different situations and some require hoisting sail when not head to wind. I also go places where power failure or fouling the prop on a lobster pot warp might make getting sail up as quickly as possible the difference between going aground and continuing afloat. Without power, I will be raising sail cross wind by the time I can jump to it, cast off ties, and start hoisting. Lazy jacks could cost me my boat in some situations like that.

 

[sailingdog]

I'm with Roger on not leaving the lazy jacks deployed. Dodging lobster pots in Buzzards Bay is almost as bad as it is in Maine. The shores are generally fairly rocky and boat unfriendly as well.

 

[Ron20324]

I worked up my own lazy jack system on a Beneteau 23-5. I do not like the stack pack on my 32-3, and will change to lazy jacks as time allows.
Looking at Sailingdog's color diagram, at the high end of the green line I place cheek blocks on each side of the mast. There are then two geen lines that go down the mast to just below the steaming light where they join together into one line I lead to the cockpit so I could tighten or slack off the 'jacks. Run through a line stopper, the lazy jacks can double as a topping lift.
For the four legs I put four eye straps on the bottom of the boom. The aft (blue) leg is tied to the aft strap. It runs up through the thimble (or just an eye splice) in the aft end of the yellow line, then down THROUGH the second-aft eye strap, up through the yellow eye, then back to tie to the aft eye strap. This lets the leg slide through the forward of the two eye straps. Same goes for the forward (pink) legs. Start the pink at the front of the boom, up through the yellow, under the mast through the 2nd eye strap, up to go through the pink on the other side, then to the front of the boom to the strap you started on. This way, the windward side can tighten as the leeward side slacks to the sail shape.

The lazy jacks are not stowed or deployed in this system. When you drop sail, tighten the jacks, drop, then you can put the sail cover on, without sail ties, between the jacks and the boom. Cover on, slack the jacks. To hoist, tighten the jacks, take off cover, and if need be, let the jacks go slack to hoist or slack afterwards. Worked great for ten years.

 

[Roger Long]

Worked great for ten years.

I curious. In that time, have you ever had to set without power in a drifting boat or other situation where the boom is 20 - 40 degrees off centerline? I've never been able to figure out a geometry that doesn't result in batten fouling in those situations except on gaff rigged boats where the gaff end is outboard of the last lazy jack attachment. I would like to know if there is a standing arrangement that can work in these circumstances though.

I originally had my jacks interconnected from side to side but it doesn't work as well with a stowable system. I like the tails to be as short as possible on the boom mounted cleats and I was always having to pull the line back and forth across the lowered sail to get the length right. Having the adjustment lines come down the mast opens up good possibilities.

You system sounds very good; especially for a boat with a high boom that needs more sail containment with the one caveat about being able to set sail quickly under less than ideal circumstances which is quite important to me.

 

[RichH]

I have a crab-crusher with ~400 sq. mainsail. I use an Ez-Jax type system from heavy parachute cord and small bullet blocks. I hardly ever drop them, usually leave them in place all the time. Good for reefing the main with the wind 'behind' from a deep to a 'deeper' reef. I retract them only when racing.