Stackpack

[beene]

Trying to decide between going with a stackpack or the standard old sailcover.

I will have lazy jacks, with 3 reefing lines along the boom. I am thinking the pack would keep everything nice and neat.

I am sure there is a performance hit having the pack, but how much.... probably not worth mentioning.

Any thoughts?

How much should I expect to pay?

Thanks

G

[TAM]

Hope you get a response with some idea of pricing. I have a friend with a Hunter 25 and a StackPack. Haven't seen it in action yet though but he says it works well. Our M doesn't have lazy jacks. Kind of a pain for single handing. Anoying even with 2. We have Doyle sails and their site indicates that they can easily be retrofit. I contacted a couple of sail lofts in January but never heard anything back. If anyone has done the retrofit I'd be interested in your experience.

TAM

[beene]

I emailed Doyle and am waiting to hear back. But I am not expecting to hear from them any time soon. as it seems every shop I deal with in the sailboat realm, like sailing, takes there sweet time getting anywhere.



G

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

The midwest Mac dealer PowerSailing used to sell a Mac special version of the Stack Pack. It was pretty reasonable at $250 but they don't seem to exist any more. I'm sure the Doyle version will be way over priced for what is just a bit of Sunbrella with a zipper along the top.

I've always thought it would be a simple project for a evening or two with a few materials from SailRite. The PowerSailing one was a single piece of fabric that wrapped under the boom rather than being two separate pieces. Really nothing more than a standard sail cover with the opening on the top instead of the bottom. Add a long zipper and you have it. The lazy jacks just connect to some D rings attached with webbing along the opening on the top. The fabric was attached to the bottom of the boom with a few snaps.

I asked BWY why they didn't sell one and they indicated they had problems with lazy jacks on our boats. They say the mast is so skinny that the slot between the lazy jacks becomes too narrow to work well. The battens are constantly hanging up. Personnaly I think this problem could be overcome if you pay close attention to the location of the lazy jacks. A downhaul also might be in order to help over come any resistance in lowering the sail.

[delevi]

G,
Back when I was shopping for sails, I filled out online quote requests to five or six lofts, including Doyle. The only loft that did not get back to me was Doyle. Soooo, don't hold your breath to hear back from them.

Cheers,
L.

[Terry]

Our M doesn't have lazy jacks. Kind of a pain for single handing. Anoying even with 2. TAM

I asked BWY why they didn't sell one and they indicated they had problems with lazy jacks on our boats. They say the mast is so skinny that the slot between the lazy jacks becomes too narrow to work well. The battens are constantly hanging up. Personnaly I think this problem could be overcome if you pay close attention to the location of the lazy jacks. A downhaul also might be in order to help over come any resistance in lowering the sail.

I managed to get a small size Harken Lazy Jack kit with the two boom attachements but have yet to install it and these two quotes are making me hesitant to do so. Is it really that bad? I am hoping to get completely prepared for single handed sailing and Lazy Jacks seem like an integral component to the overall set-up. I would think it is the boom that is so skinny as to make a narrow slot not the mast, in any case there must be a way to overcome this obstacle as I really need to be able to drop that main fast and keep it contained untill I get to my slip. How are others dealing with this issue?

[Highlander]

Terry

I have a lazy jack system on my that i will most likely take off & install on my the only issue with it is when raising the sail is to make sure the boat is pointing into the wind so as the battens don't hang up on the lazy jack lines but you have to do this anyway so as they dont hang up on the spreaders so no big deal really as I always point into the wind when raising my main anyway , now if you make your main sail a loose footed one like I am presently doing it will free up the channel on top of the boom to run inboom lines for perhaps reefing any thoughts on this
by the way Terry did you install your new furler yet is the drum at 3 1/2" big enough to hold all your reefing line ? pic 's please

J

[Wa2paa]

After 4 Years of trying various combinations of Sail Management.
I like the Combination of a StackPack with stiff internal battens, used with a simple Lazy Jack system.

One Big/Long Zipper on top of the Stack-Pack, remove the Front Cover, and Point her into the Wind... Then hoist away. Works Great.

Main Sail has full Horizontal Battens

Easy to Drop , or Reef....Point her into the Wind, Reef or Drop. The Stackpack, makes it Easy to singlehand... No Flopping over the Boom.
Only: downside is the cost: unless you have access to a Sailrite Sewing Machine & the Time & Ability to engineer the same.
Happy Sailing 2008




Jack

[c130king]

Terry,

Ditto what Highlander said.

I can't imagine single-handing (which is pretty much what I do the most) without the Lazy Jacks. Yes my battens will sometimes catch, in fact it probably happens 50% of the time I hoist the main, but it literally takes 20 seconds or less to correct. I lock the halyard in the clam cleat, reach up and grab the leech of the sail, and then pull down to pop the batten out from under the LJ. Works every time.

PO installed the system. It was originally just one long line ran through some blocks and fairleads. And when the LJ was "down" so that I could pull it all forward to enable it to go inside the sail cover the line was the perfect length. But to "raise" the LJs so that they were up in the working position I had to pull about 25' of line out the end of my boom to tighten the LJs. Thus I was sailing around with a big wad/coil of line hanging on the end of my boom. Seemed like a pain.

So I modified the system. It is now not single line. The "main" parts of the LJ is now 2 lines with small caribiners (from Wal Mart) on each end that connect to small attachment points on the boom/mast. The "vertical" lines are simply tied on to the "main" lines and taken under the boom through a fairlead. A couple of wraps of duct tape on the "main" lines below the knots in the "vertical" lines keeps them from slipping down. To pull the LJ forward to put on the sail cover I simply have to open the caribiners and pull the whole thing forward. I do have a loop with a "taught line" knot to enable me to tighten or loosen the main line as necessary (which is very infrequent).

On Edit: Found a picture. The Black Lines are the "main lines". Up from the aft end of the boom, through small blocks which are the green circles (which are attached to lines attached to the sides of the mast), and then down to forward section of the boom. The red circles are the small caribiners (four in total...one at each end of each line). The blue lines are the vertical parts of the LJ. Each one is a single line tied on to the main and taken under the boom. The tape keeps them from slipping.



It's kind of "Boy Scoutish"...but that is what I know best so that is what I did. But it works and it was simple to modify. Can't really say how difficult to install it in the first place but I doubt it was that tough.

LJ's are a "must have" in my opinion.

Good luck,
Jim

[Terry]

John,
Yes, I have it, but not installed yet, did all the measurements and took my sails in for luff conversion. The long 25' 9-1/2" foil that covers the forestay is made of PVC and is currently coiled like a garden hose, I have to wait for warmer weather to straighten it out or it will split and crack. I plan to put it in the warm house a few days prior to soften it up then let it sit under the warm sun on my east facing sundeck to really soften it so that I can straighten it out and snap it onto the forestay. I have a new 5/32 forestay with a 5/16 size turnbuckle (next size up from OEM). The drum looks plenty big enough and I will likely only use 1/4" line so it should be okay. (not sure what is 3 1/2" it has a large diameter) I will have to come up with a method of pinning the forestay while it is at the preset length because it is far to onerous to adjust the turnbuckle with the furler over it, how do others do this? I had hank-ons so adjusting the turnbuckle each time was preferable. I could never risk making any adjustments over the water as there is too much risk of dropping one of the screws or pieces in the drink, perhaps I should order some of the replacement pieces to keep on hand in case of murphys law.
I have a few plans of Lazy Jacks from the internet to use as a guide and hope to get the system in place this spring, never done it before. Sounds like a no-brainer though by the looks of different drawings but I am sure to make a mistake or two. Nice to hear of a few successfull users as I still cannot imagine having to deal with that big sail falling all over the cabin top while out on my own. Actually I have never been out sailing alone yet so it will be a new experience.
PS Pics??? I have never done them before, even after all my posts I have not done a pic, too onerous. Thanks for the pic Jim (c130king) & Wa2paa

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

I also think it would be pretty easy to convert a std sail cover to a stack pack style cover.

Simply cut open the top seam, hem the edges, then sew in the long zipper about 1" below the newly finished edges. Perhaps sew in a semi stiff batten like material inside the hem to give the upper edge a little structure.

Add some female snaps along the two bottom edges then screw some male snap bases into the sides of the boom at matching locations.

Add some D rings attached with webbing at the appropriate places where the lazy jacks would attach.

The opening that is along the front side of the mast could stay as is with the usual twist toggle fasteners.

Should be pretty simple if you are handy with a sewing machine. While a walking foot model like those SailRite sells are best, I've sewn a few sunbrella projects on our normal Sears machine without problems. You can't get as long of a straight or zigzag stitch, but it still works fine. You would probably have issues with many layers, but for a sail cover it will work fine. Be sure you use UV resistant polyester thread.

[Highlander]

Terry

heres a pic of my lazy jacks & single line reefing




tried to find something better but only have access to photobkt right now
j

[beene]

Many thanks to all that chimed in.

I am going to see what my local loft has to say. They are great folks and Highlander trusts them with all his stuff, so I will also.

Now only if I could get as good a deal as my Scottish friend always seems to be able to charm himself into getting.

Man he is one slick talker when it comes to getting a good deal.

G

[Highlander]

Beene

Its the rolling of the "R's that gets them !

I have asked them for a quote on one instead of a main sail cover will let you know what develops !

J

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Perhaps there could be a bulk order from those of us here that want one. For the right price I would much rather just buy it instead of spend the effort to make it. Might make it worth their time to make a pattern.