Going to redo older and too light lazy Jacks on our Hunter 376. I would appreciate sugestions as to diameter of line and a diagram would be wonderful. Thanl you!
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lazy jack design thoughts
Mark, We talked to a lot of folks before we chose our design - and, as you might expect, got a lot of different ideas. We designed our lazy jack system to (a) allow them to be pulled out of the way easily - this is good when at sea when you don't want them slatting against your sail material, or (b) if you have a sail cover that you don't have or want to have "lazy jack slots" built into the sail cover. We wanted an adequate number of "loop" lines to hold the main from dumping on to the cabin top when dropping the sail (this is impacted by the length of the boom and size of your boat). Finally we wanted to be able to tighten or loosen the lazy jacks depending on circumstances. We have a 1971 Morgan 38 yawl - which has a long boom compared to some more recent designs - but not far off your Hunter 37. We used 5/16" Trophy white for our lines, four 2" stainless O rings, and mounted two 3" cleats on the mast. You can e-mail me with your FAX number and I will send you a sketch drawing of our particular system (setsail@ix.netcom.com).
Mark, We talked to a lot of folks before we chose our design - and, as you might expect, got a lot of different ideas. We designed our lazy jack system to (a) allow them to be pulled out of the way easily - this is good when at sea when you don't want them slatting against your sail material, or (b) if you have a sail cover that you don't have or want to have "lazy jack slots" built into the sail cover. We wanted an adequate number of "loop" lines to hold the main from dumping on to the cabin top when dropping the sail (this is impacted by the length of the boom and size of your boat). Finally we wanted to be able to tighten or loosen the lazy jacks depending on circumstances. We have a 1971 Morgan 38 yawl - which has a long boom compared to some more recent designs - but not far off your Hunter 37. We used 5/16" Trophy white for our lines, four 2" stainless O rings, and mounted two 3" cleats on the mast. You can e-mail me with your FAX number and I will send you a sketch drawing of our particular system (setsail@ix.netcom.com).
What I Did
Was to attach them to the existing topping lift using four small stainless "D" rings seized on to the plastic covering of the topping lift wire. The jacks come down VERTICALLY and about a foot abaft of each batten end. This way the sail cannot get outside of the lazy jacks and the batten ends cannot catch either going up or coming down. We leave them in place whilst sailing as they are only 3/32" diameter and cause no trouble - and they are instantly ready for reefing. Also, when raising or lowering the boom, the jacks go with it so there is no tendency for the sail to fall off the boom. The initial setting of the topping lift needs to be such that it takes the weight of the boom so the sail does not have to lift it when hoisting. However do not set it too high as the lazy jacks cannot get over the big roach of the sail.
Was to attach them to the existing topping lift using four small stainless "D" rings seized on to the plastic covering of the topping lift wire. The jacks come down VERTICALLY and about a foot abaft of each batten end. This way the sail cannot get outside of the lazy jacks and the batten ends cannot catch either going up or coming down. We leave them in place whilst sailing as they are only 3/32" diameter and cause no trouble - and they are instantly ready for reefing. Also, when raising or lowering the boom, the jacks go with it so there is no tendency for the sail to fall off the boom. The initial setting of the topping lift needs to be such that it takes the weight of the boom so the sail does not have to lift it when hoisting. However do not set it too high as the lazy jacks cannot get over the big roach of the sail.
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