MacGregorSailors.com

Beene

I enquired on the Doyle Stand at the Strictly Sail Show in Chicago in January. Their StackPack 2 System looks impressive and can be fitted retrospectively to your sail. You need to send your main in to them. Turn around time quoted I think from memory was 4 weeks. Price quoted for the 26M was $540. Price quoted by Doyles in the UK is £Stg 110 per linear metre of boom!

Tks again.

I am concerned that the stackpack might impede reffing ability. From what I have seen, it attaches to the sail, not the bottom of the boom. I guess there would have to be slots for reefing lines wherever you decide to put your blocks/cleats/etc for reefing.

Hmmmmm

Turning into a bit of a mind bender without everything here in front of me to help me see what it is I am trying to accomplish.

G

Doyles design attaches to the sail, many, many others out there are boom attached, some along the side, some like the one PowerSailing designed to the bottom. I'm sure they built it that way because it was cheaper and easier to make it out of a single piece of fabric. Doyle markets theirs like it is something unique, but these kinds of sail covers have been used on many boats for years. You will find them almost exclusively used on the charter catamaran fleets.

The latest designs are like the ones being fitted to the newest Tarten sailboats. Their booms are carbon fiber pocket booms. These are wider non-symetrical booms that are open on the top. Part of the sail stores inside the boom and the rest of the stack is covered by a zip up fabric top. When sailing the cover fabric is out of the way inside the boom.

Someone needs to design and make a replacement pocket boom for the Mac.

To right Duane, and great info/find.

I take it you too would love to have a nice neat clean way of handling the main.

The other thing that would be great about using some sort of stackpack would be not having to fold up and put the sailcover away every time you use the main.

Single handing would be a dream.

That Odin sure looked nice with the one it has from page 1, thanks for posting that and your info Jack.

Sure do like that transom the Odin has, wish my M had one like that.

Here's hoping someone, maybe me, can figure out a solution to the stackpack issue.

Cheers

G

Has anyone received a quote from a loft and/or purchased the Stackpack?

I have Lazy Jacks on my M made by Mike Inmon and I can't even imagine lowering the main without them - - - it used to be SUCH a hassle compared to real easy now. Batons do catch on them when raising (not when lowering) the main, but it's no big deal - - - just release a little and start back up - - - no problem.

The only bad thing is I am still using the original factory sail cover (with snaps) and it no longer fits entirely around the boom - - - leaving an untidy litlle sail area showing near the bottom of the boom, and I am too cheap to have one that fits better made.

Rick

To those who are thinking of installing lazy jacks. You may want to do a search on sailcaddys. There are several of us on this site who have them and are happy with them. They are cheaper, don't hang up on anything, fold onto the boom when you are not using them, work very well, and did I mention that they're cheaper? Im not affiliated with them at all, (I made my own set.) but figured I'd mention them for the newer folks on the site.

I was starting to think that it must be possible to make something along the lines of some of these systems instead of paying boat buck$. I made up my own lazy jacks for the cost of some bungie cord, 3mm line and plastic hooks - doubles as sails ties too.

The sail caddy is a neat idea, and could surely be fabricated for a lot less than they charge for the kit of parts (do I understand right that's what you did, Carl) Nice that they show detailed installation pictures on the web so you can see exactly how it's constructed.

I'm not sure whether it also has lazy jack lines (none are shown), or whether it's just supposed to catch the sail without. If the latter, I think that's a bit optimistic, especially when lowering the sail in windy conditions.

Anyone else have experience of the sail caddy?

Cheers, Rick