We recently finished sewing a mainsail Stack Pack from a Sail Rite kit & are now using our mainsail more due to the ease of taking it down. Our mainsail was difficult to flake & tie as it was extra heavy & loose footed. The retractable lazy jacks have 4 lines on each side, and consist (on each side of the boom/mast) of a line running through a block suspended from the spreader which has a double block tied to the end. A line is run through each, terminating on the stack pack.
$380 Stack Pack & Lazy Jacks
- Thread starter jimfrankelly
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Sounds good. Didn't know Sailrite had that kit. What does it look like when sailing? I never thought I would like having the pack interfering with air flow. Does the Harken lazy jack system deploy and retract easily? My "EZ-Jax" system is ten years old and in need of replacement.
The Stack Pack can be easily & quickly lowered & tied to the boom with bungy cords to reduce the profile & make the entire sail visible. We have done that but have decided that we will just leave it up for most sailing. The Stack Pack does tidy up the lower sail when the mainsail is reefed with all of the surplus sail contained in the Stack Pack.
I do not ahve the Harken Lazy Jacks. I made up my own system of 4 lines on each side of the boom, that seems to be working. I suspended blocks under the spreaders, put a line through the block & tied a double block on the end of the line. I them passed a line through each side of the double blocks & tied them to the sides of the Stack Pack using loops we had sewn into the Stack Pack.
I will try to get some pictures posted soon. We would not change much except for the instructions concerning sewing the pocket for the plastic tubes that run the length of the Stack Pack to provide support. We would sew them a bit wider than Sail Rite recommended as it was a very tight fit. We would also leave a wider margin of material on the top of these poackets than the 1/8 inch they recommended as that is where you have to sew the loops of webbing that the lazy jacks are fastened to.
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