Lazy Jacks & Reefing

[Dean Abramson]

John,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for explaining this. I get it now.

Have you ever thought about writing about this stuff professionally? :-)

Man, I love this Board!

Dean

[Joe Myerson]

Dean:

I hope we haven't hijacked your thread into one on heaving-to.

Hi John,

I appreciate your input, because it was a response from you back when I first joined the board that gave me the basic instructions for heaving-to. (As one editor to another, should I hyphenate? It looks better to me, and avoids ending sentences with prepositions.)

Last year, which was my first season with a 130% genoa, I discovered that heaving-to with a full genny tended to make the boat head nearly into a gybe, or at least to turn downwind. But perhaps I had my tiller lashed too far over or sheeted the headsail in too much.

Jim: I take it you fashioned your own lazy jacks -- it certainly doesn't look very complicated. The jacks on my catboat used no blocks at all--just a line with eye splices at each end that was attached near the masthead and hung about 1/2 of the way down the mast. Another line was looped from a cleat on the boom, up through one of the splices, back around the boom through a deck strap, back up to the other splice and back around the boom to the cleat.

The rig was nice and traditional looking, but it sometimes elicited some traditional (and not-so-nice) sailor's language when I tried to tighten or slacken it while under way.

--Joe

[John Vigor]

Hi John,

I appreciate your input, because it was a response from you back when I first joined the board that gave me the basic instructions for heaving-to. (As one editor to another, should I hyphenate? It looks better to me, and avoids ending sentences with prepositions.)

Last year, which was my first season with a 130% genoa, I discovered that heaving-to with a full genny tended to make the boat head nearly into a gybe, or at least to turn downwind. But perhaps I had my tiller lashed too far over or sheeted the headsail in too much.


--Joe

Joe, different publishing houses use different style sheets. Webster's doesn't use the hyphen. International Marine does.
Make your own choice. The crucial thing is consistency in the copy.

As for heaving to with a 130 percent genoa, I would always advise
rolling it down to a 100 percent jib before trying to heave to. My answer to Dean was very specifically based on his question, which was about a 100-percent jib only. If you are using a bigger jib it will be more difficult to heave to, certainly more unpredictable.

In my previous post I mentioned two controls that alter the boat's attitude to the wind while hove to, and they were also very specifically in answer to Dean's question, which involved heaving to under jib only, without a mainsail.

But if you heave to with a mainsail as well, you have a third control. The harder you sheet in the mainsail, the closer the boat will lie to the wind and the more she will drive forward. The steadiest hove-to position seems to occur when the mainsail is eased quite a long way out and lies in the wind shadow of the jib, where it hangs quite quietly without too much shaking.

On some boats, and in some wind and sea conditions, you need to take one or two reefs in the mainsail to heave to properly. I think the more the two sail areas are balanced in area, main and jib, the easier it will be to heave to and the happier your little ship will lie. With a small area of mainsail and a backed storm jib, many boats will happily take up a position with the bow pointing slightly into the waves, which is the safest and most comfortable.

As the wind blows harder, and I mean much harder, a sailboat naturally tries to lie broadside on no matter what you do. The windage of the mast, in its position ahead of the center of lateral resistance, pulls the head downwind. In that case, many boats will balance and heave to under a double-reefed mainsail only. I had a 31-footer that would do that. She would ride the seas like a duck with her head under her wing. She had a similar underbody to our Cape Dories.

Incidentally, someone mentioned the "slick" that occurs in the hove-to position, a sort of rolling smoothness in the water to windward. This is the result of the Cape Dory's large keel being dragged sideways through the water like a barn door. In storm weather, it helps to make waves break before they reach your boat, so that their energy is mostly spent before they reach you.

The problem, for our boats, however, is that no matter what you seem to do with sails and helm, a Cape Dory will forereach, or forge ahead slowly, so that she moves out of this protective slick all the time.

People like the Pardeys have actually used a parachute anchor streamed to windward while hove to. They adjusted it on a bridle in such a manner as to halt all forward movement. This keeps the boat within the area of the protective slick. But I suspect they don't use a parachute anchor very often, because it's a heckuva thing to try to deploy on a small boat in a severe gale. Like most of us, they'd rather lie ahull when the hove-to position got too dangerous, and then run off under bare poles if they started getting hurled up and sideways too much.

Sorry to be so long-winded but, as with most things to do with yachts, there are a lot of ifs and buts to consider. There are scores of equally good ways to deal with various sailing situations, and if you find a good way that works for you on your boat, use it, and never mind what the experts say.

Cheers,

John Vigor

[Stan W.]

The jacks on my catboat used no blocks at all--just a line with eye splices at each end that was attached near the masthead and hung about 1/2 of the way down the mast. Another line was looped from a cleat on the boom, up through one of the splices, back around the boom through a deck strap, back up to the other splice and back around the boom to the cleat.

The lazyjacks on my Marshall 18 were like yours except that both ends of the lower line terminated with eyesplices held by eyestraps so the setup wasn't moveable or adjustable at all. They had enough slack to accomodate the sail's draft but still did a fine job of containing the sail when it was being doused. After using that setup, the idea of moveable lazyjacks seems over-fussy and I've often wondered if there was any reason why "permanent" lazyjacks wouldn't work just as well on a CD 28.

[Jim Davis]

Joe/Stan

The reason mine are adjustable is to keep the top batten from fouling the lazy jack. When that happens I foul the air as I revert to my primary language. On Gaff boats it isn't a problem, but with our sails and battens (short of full) hang up happen.

As to using eye splices and bowlines, I got too many twists and again caught hell for reverting to my primary language.

[Sea Owl]

I have used Lazy Jacks on my friends CD30 and don't have any on my CD25. I have also used them on my friends earlier O'day 222. For me, I don't want them. The hassle with Battens getting caught going up with the mainsail is more of a pain than dealing with the mainsail on a CD25, at least for me. I think on a CD30 and bigger, they are good, as there is a lot more sail to deal with. Never been on a CD28, so can't comment there.

I also don't want more lines than I have now running around my mast, or on my boom. Especially since I have the original configuration of main (not Loose Footed). But that's me, and as I think many of us know, likes and dislikes in rigging are as varied as the sailors involved.

As to heaving to, I know my CD25 rudder is essentially ineffective at very very slow speeds (< about .75 knots). Can you effectively heave-to a CD25 in moderate winds to put in a reef in the main? I have visions of the wind taking the jib and the bow down wind quickly, with no impact from the rudder due to initial slow speed. Will have to try it this season I guess, an intriguing idea for reefing or raising/lowering the main single handed. I have hank on jibs, so making a 'smaller' jib to decrease the wind effect isn't really an option....

[Warren Kaplan]

I solved my problems with battens getting caught on the jacks going up with the setup I have for my lines. I brought lines back to the cockpit. One of the benefits is that I stick the main halyard into my self tailing winch on the cabin top and as I crank the mainsail up with one hand I can pull the leach of the sail slightly to windward with the other hand, if necessary, so that the battens clear the leeward lazy jacks on the way up if I'm not facing directly into the wind. Works like a charm.

I didn't bring my lines back to the cockpit for that reason but it sure is a nice benefit to doing it.

[Sandy D.]

My 27 came with jacklines when I bought her.I found them to be more of a hassel than an asset. Especially when single handing when the boat might not stay pointed straight into the wind like I had asked of her. If I ease the main sheet and release the halyard the main drops immediately. I race on larger boats and they(jacklines)seem to help when lowering the main,but seems that at least half the time we raise the main a batten gets hung up.

I am of the opinion that heaving to should be at the top of the list of "must know how to do"safety items.Number one having the ability to shorten sail,and a close number two would be knowing how to stop the boat quickly while under sail.

I teach my crew that in the event of someone going overboard the boat must be stoped. Immediately turn the boat into the wind and backfill the jib,now get the motor running,sails down,and with any luck retrieve the crew member.

-Sandy

[Dean Abramson]

Joe, no problem: I am delighted about the direction this thread has gone.

John, I appreciate the further elaboration in response to Joe's post.

Sandy, I like what you are saying here. I have been in denial about my wife's ability to sail back and save me should I fall overboard. I think it would be easier to just tell her to tack the boat without touching the jib sheets, then secure the wheel to windward. Under most conditions, she would then be hove to. Maybe I could swim to the boat; maybe not. But at least she would then have a better environment in which to go about starting the engine, then dumping or dropping the main, etc.

I have learned a lot from this thread, and I am very grateful for everyone's participation.

Since mostly where I sail has me fairly/very near rocks, I have always thought that the movement a boat makes while hove to would make it impractical, so I have kind of ignored the idea. But the more I think about it now, it could really come in handy in many situations, and in lots of locations.

So if you will bear with me a bit more...

Say I am now in my CD31, with all three sails up fully, sailing in a 12-knot breeze. If I were to tack the boat, not touch the yankee sheets, but release the staysail boom's sheet, would the boat stay hove to in most conditions? (I am thinking that it would, if I play with the position of the main.)

Dean

[Len]

But of course it would Dean,

Len

[Carl Thunberg]

We have a few mini-threads within a thread here. I see no one has picked up your specific question. You can heave-to very nicely in a CD25. The rudder works just fine for this purpose. Just try lashing the tiller to windward once and watch the boat chase its tail as was so elegantly stated earlier. You'll be convinced pretty quickly that the rudder does its job, even at very slow speeds. My old CD25 had (has) hank-on headsails too. I almost always used the 130 genny and never had a problem heaving-to.

[Dan & Chris]

(snip) There are scores of equally good ways to deal with various sailing situations, and if you find a good way that works for you on your boat, use it, and never mind what the experts say.

Cheers,

John Vigor

I recently finished a very cool book (http://tinyurl.com/3e36cy) that was recommended on this board, and it was very helpful for picturing some of the situations you describe.

This has been a great thread for both reminding and learning procedures; now if we can just keep it going until our launch date of (sob) May 12th...

Dan & Chris

[Len]

Since members seem to be enjoying discussions of slowing and stopping maybe we could here from those racers out there who have suggestions for making our CDs go FASTER.

[Oswego John]

Lock or don't lock (take your choice) the prop.

Jes kidding, Len. Sorry, I think that I've come down with a bad case of cabin feveritis. Very big grin

Come on spring time,
O J

[Dean Abramson]

You thought you killed this thread, didn't you, OJ?