Where do I attach lazy jacks on the mast?

[kitcat]

Just a quick question, I'm fitting a stack pack sail cover with lazy jacks and eventually a reefing line back to the cockpit, but having set up the cover and lazy jacks, attached to a couple of 'D' fittings riveted just under the top mast hound, I'm now finding that when raising the mainsail, the battens get caught up in the LJs, so, whilst pondering where the best place to run them too, I reckoned that if they were taken to the spreader, about 12" out from the mast, they would still do the job of gathering up the sail when lowering, with less chance of getting the battens caught up, as it isn't so far up the mast.

Can someone just confirm that I will be on the right track with that please, before I go making any more unwanted holes and cutting up expensive rope?

Thanks.

Paul

[c130king]

My LJ lines run up to the mast...

However, I have lines attached to my shrouds about 10' up or so and those short lines are attached to my LJ lines running up to the mast and pull the LJ lines apart so there is a pretty good spread. This reduces the issue of batten catching up in the LJs on the way up. Still happens occassionally but it is not a big deal...just lower the halyard a little tive the back of the main a tug to move the batten back between the LJ lines and then re-hoist.

Spreaders would probably work as well.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Jim

[Sumner]

...so, whilst pondering where the best place to run them too, I reckoned that if they were taken to the spreader, about 12" out from the mast, they would still do the job of gathering up the sail when lowering, with less chance of getting the battens caught up, as it isn't so far up the mast...

I put ours out on the...



...spreader and at fist had them do a turn there as shown above, but didn't like the down-force on the spreaders even though it wasn't much if I didn't support the mast with the lazy-jacks. I feared that might happen so then ran from the ....



...spreaders up the mast a ways. Now most of the forces, if any, are tending to compress the spreaders towards the mast and putting them in compression which is fine. Do you have a topping lift? We don't support ....



...the boom/main with the lazy-jacks, but with the topping lift as shown. I would recommend that also.

All of this has worked fine, but if we aren't headed into the wind while raising the main we can still catch the full batten main on something, usually the spreaders themselves.

The lazy-jacks and sail pack are well worth the effort though and there is a lot more on our install here.....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... ng-21.html

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

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[kitcat]

Thanks to both Jim and Sumner, some really good ideas there, and as usual a picture is worth a thousand words. I appreciate the PM from Pokerick to, that's a good idea, I may do that before I go too much further.

Any other thoughts or ideas always welcome.

Paul.

[robbarnes1965]

Sumner, I really like the lazy jack set-up.

I had lazy jacks installed by the dealer when I got my boat and were not on the spreaders. The result were that they were too close together, it affected sail shape. In addition, the sail rarely actually fell between them. I found the setup so useless I went with a roller furler!

[c130king]

Just because I haven't posted this in a while...

Here is a video my daughter shot of me demonstrating my single-handed techniques (forgive her jerky camera operation). I slide over to starboard seat and furl up the front sail and then hop back on the Captains seat and start my turn into the wind and crank the Merc. Then while motoring slowing into the wind I slide back over to the starboard side and lower the main into my lazy jacks. I have a "haul down" which will pull the main down all the way.

Works well for me. Once down into the LJ I can raise the daggerboard and motor at high speed (16 knots for me) without doing anything else.

Enjoy.

Furling & Lazy Jacks Video

Cheers,
Jim

[RobertB]

C103king

motor at high speed (16 knots for me)

You are going too fast - need more beer to increase ballast and bring that speed down.

[c130king]

C103king

motor at high speed (16 knots for me)

You are going too fast - need more beer to increase ballast and bring that speed down.

Ok, here is "high speed" with jerky camera operator at the helm just a few minutes after she shot that video. This was against the tide so we only got 13 knots. Gotta love that Mighty Merc Monster...

It was about 10 miles from the marina (where we shot the video) out into the Mississippi Sound...and it was a couple of days after XMas in 2009.

Katie at the Helm

Much better camera control with an expert doing the shooting...

Cheers,
Jim

(* HI-JACKED THREAD ALERT...Sorry Paul *)

[Sumner]

..Here is a video my daughter shot of me.....
Furling & Lazy Jacks Video Cheers, Jim

Yep your video helped sell me on a furler and lazy-jacks. Add the sail-pack to that and you will really be happy ,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

[mdoucet1983]

What do you use to block the grove where you feed the slugs through??

[Sumner]

What do you use to block the grove where you feed the slugs through??

Who is the question for and sorry, but I don't understand the question

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

[Tomfoolery]

What do you use to block the grove where you feed the slugs through??

Is this what you're asking about (the round one)? It's what I use to prevent the sail slugs from coming out the wider entry slot in the mast. $9 at BWY (plus shipping), and $10 at West Marine.

[mdoucet1983]

I have one of those, but the groove itself sits about a 1.5 foot above the boom... was the gooseneck installed to low ??

[Tomfoolery]

I have an , so I can't speak about the , but my opening is below the lowest sail slide. No problem keeping them in there.

One advantage I can see in having the opening so high is that you could pull all the sail slides out with the main still on the boom, with sail ties to hold it neat, and remove the boom with the sail still on it. A little heavy and clumsy perhaps, but with two people, easy enough to handle. Use the main cover to keep everything neat.

Other than that, I couldn't say why that opening is so high up.

[Terry]

I have one of those, but the groove itself sits about a 1.5 foot above the boom... was the gooseneck installed to low ??

No, the gooseneck was not installed too low and I doubt it sits 1.5 feet below the groove. I just went out and measured it, the groove is only 6" long itself and the gooseneck is about 5" lower than the bottom of the flared groove on my 2003 26M. The 5" gap is to make it easier to slide all the slugs out while the bolt rope foot is still in the boom when you want to completely remove the mainsail from the boat. The first slug is well above the groove and one can completely lower the sail without taking the stopper out and then tie it to the boom and add sail cover.