Raising and lowering the main

[Colin Morley]

I really enjoy my BayRaider but for one thing - raising and lowering the main! It is almost impossible to raise the main on the beach or slipway because the wind is in the wrong direction. This means motoring out and tying up to a buoy. While getting the gaff ready and raising it there is sail everywhere in the boat and a danger of hitting the crew. When it comes to lowering the main we head the boat into the wind and then drop the gaff and sail. This means sail all over the boat and my wife trying to steer up a crowded mooring saying she cant see where she is going. When I had a yacht I had lazy jacks that made lowering the main so easy. When I had a Wayfarer we raised the main on the beach with the bow more of less head to wind.

Has anyone got any advice how to do these two manoeuvres without endangering the crew and boat?

Does anyone scandalise the main?

Colin

[David]

I really enjoy my BayRaider but for one thing - raising and lowering the main!


Colin

Hi Colin

I have found this problem as well though I am fortunate in that I don't have any crowded moorings or slipway to get through. The sail does take up quite a bit of the cockpit area and I have already hit a crew on the head with the boom. What I have found now if I need to motor or row is I lash the gaff and boom to the mizzen mast. This works very well and gets everything out of the way plus you can leave all the main cords attached and easy to go back up again. I will do this at a slipway if I need to motor out through any moorings. I have enclosed a photo showing it lashed up though not very tidy. The main uphaul is the right length to go to the mizzen so you already have the lashing cord in your hand

David
BR Little Ripple

[Colin Morley]

Thanks David, Looks useful. I will try it on Chichester harbour this weekend.

Any other ideas out there?

[Michael Rogers]

You mentioned lazy jacks yourself, Colin ----??

(SP Cadenza and T12 in build)

[Colin Morley]

Thanks Michael, I am not sure whether you are calling me a lazy jack or suggesting this is the best way to control the main.

I dont think lazy jacks are an option on a boat where the mast is lowered and the boom is completely separate. having several bits of string hanging from the mast when it is raised would mean that always one of them was catching on something or trying to hang the skipped, then they would have to be fixed to the boom when that was attached but after the sail had been attached. It would cause too many problems and solve few....unless some one knows better.

surely some of you clever BayRaider sailers and innovators have overcome the difficulties of setting and lowering the main without a mutiny from the crew?

[Michael Rogers]

Name-calling is not my style, Colin, but I walked into that one.

Actually, you've raised an interesting point. Lazy jacks are essential to junk rig, for reefing. My Storm Petrel Cadenza is junk rigged (I was out this afternoon, and had occasion to reef because of a squall under a black rain cloud). And I lower my mast. LJs are the least 'tidy' aspect of my rigging and de-rigging, and I am still trying to work out how deal with them most neatly: I'm sure there's a simple solution somehow, and will let you know when I've cracked it.

Of course, I'm on a relatively small scale (14 ft mast). Robin Blain, the founder of the Junk Rig Association, will shortly take delivery of a BayCruiser 20 hull, which he intends to junk rig with a lower-able mast (he trail-sails). I will ask him what he does by way of 'tidy' LJs, in case that helps.

Cheers

(SP Cadenza + T12 in build)

[Tony]

LJs are the least 'tidy' aspect of my rigging and de-rigging, and I am still trying to work out how deal with them most neatly: I'm sure there's a simple solution somehow,

Here is the system I use on the lug rigged Four Sisters. It acts as a topping lift, lazy jack and courtesy flag halyard all in one.
Indgredients:
•   one  long bit of string
•   one short bit (you might want 2 short bits and hang the expense),
•   bullnose screwed to the mast head,
•   small snapshackle ,
•   turning block
•   jamb cleat, 
All were rescued from failed projects  - oh – except the bullnose.  I blagged that off Matt when he wasn’t looking.
Method:
1.   Fix the bullnose to the masthead. (You could use a small block- but why get complicated?)
2.   Tie the long bit of string to it and run it down to the snap shackle fixed to the aft end of the boom.
3.   Run it back up, through the bullnose, then down again to the turning block at the base of the mast and finally, aft to the jamb cleat.
On Four Sisters the yard is longer than the boom so that is all that is needed to control it when hoisting or lowering. The string marked ( D) is a highly technical and expensively engineered addition to stop the lowered sail catching the wind or falling off the cabin top into the sea when lowered.
Use the short string(D) to tie a bowline or a rolling hitch around (C) then pull forwards until you have made enough of an angle. Then tie it off at the foward end of the boom.  You might want to use tiny snap shackles or stainless steel rings instead of the knots if you cant stay out of the chandlers. For a sprit boom sail use a duplicate (D) string the other side of the sail with its rolling hitch at (A). ( I don’t need to stand the extra expense of this  as the mast is there to catch the sail for me.) 
Come to think of it, on a sprit boom sail it might work better if the (D) strings are fixed to the base of the mast. That way when you remove the sail and boom all the string can be hauled up tight against the mast to stop it getting snarled up when you drop the mast.

Thought for the day:
If you give a hundred monkeys a hundred lazyjack systems for a hundred  years ...would you get a macramé jump suit?

[Tony]

Here is a pic of the thing in action in the grey light of dawn.
NB only one (D) string in use....and it was the photographer who had taken on a list, not the boat. (Hard night at the Lawrenny Arms.)

[Michael Rogers]

To misquote Prof Higgins in My Fair Lady - 'I think he's got it! By Jove he's got it!'. That's very clever, Tony, and most helpful. It's given me ideas to improve my lazy jacks considerably. When we eventually meet, the first pint at least is on me.

Two related chandlery queries. 1) You mention 'tiny' snap shackles. I suppose tiny is a relative term, but can anyone point me to a supplier of something really small of this kind? I found some small snap hooks (mini carbine hooks, really) on e-Bay. They are alloy of some sort, seem to be anodised or something similar. They are OK, but possibly a bit flimsy. I'd rather have SS if I can get it. 2) does anyone know of bullnose-type of lead (a screwable down ring) which can be opened to slip a line into it without having to thread the whole length of line through from one side: and then can be closed into a ring again, obviously? (I hope I've made that rather laboriously clear?)

Academia thought for the day
Two PhD subjects waiting to be picked up by some eager beaver. 1) The influence of lazy jack systems on Florentine Art in the 16th and 17th centuries. (Might be quite a short thesis I think.)
2) The rise and fall of the string vest.
The second one might appeal to you, Tony?

[Tony]

 When we eventually meet, the first pint at least is on me.

Now you re talking!

(Note to self: arrange first meeting somewhere with a few decent guest bitters on hand pumps.)

Split ring leads - do you mean the sort of thing they used to use for jib hanks before someone invented the Wykeham Martin roller furling gear? (Was it Martin...or Wykeham?) Try http://www.classicmarine.co.uk . If they dont have it they ll make it for you. (At a price)

String vests?
In the early sixties I had a girlfriend who used to buy em from M&S, dye them and wear them as a mini-dress. (Yorkshire lasses - didnt feel the cold.)

[Terry Cross]

We have the opposite problem to Colin.
 With “IONA” ( Storm 15) we have always rigged and launched from the beach or slipway without problems.   This year, holidaying in Portland  I used a pontoon berth in the marina which meant motoring out and raising the sails at sea. (The first week single handed)
           The “ Harbour furl” recommended by Claus, may be ideal on a Bayraider but try it single handed on a 15ft rolling dinghy and you will end up swimming.
   What I needed was a system that would :
-  Be relatively easy to use.
-  Stack neatly as any exposed sail would add to     windage and make docking more difficult
-  Leave the cockpit clear
-  Be able to reef at sea.
-  Be able to steer ( without lines or tiller extension ) whilst working at the mast.
I believe I have achieved all the above, although the last two will require a bit more practice.
I will be posting the details as soon as the photos are sorted.
Terry Cross “IONA”

[Michael Rogers]

I look forward to seeing your version of junk rig, Terry, which - as you know - ticks all your boxes (and then some).

(I hear someone muttering "Will no one rid us of this troublesome chatterbox'.)

(SP Cadenza + T12 in build)

[Terry Cross]

Michael.
 I thought I would make you (and others) curios.
Junk Rig?   I don’t think I could cope with all those sticks & string  and how would you achieve the last criteria with your rig?   I will give you a clue. All I have had to add to the original was  a long piece of string, a few small bits, a lacing eye and a few bungies and it took all of half an hour (after racking by brains for a couple of weeks).
Terry Cross “IONA”

[Tony]

Hi, Terry.

Long bit of string, eh?
Hope you re not infringing any of my Patents!

Your wish-list for Iona s rig is identical in essence to that of 18/19th Century inshore fishermen. Their answer? The dipping lug and a ships boy. If no child labour available for tacking, use a boom making it a balanced lug.
I think Andrew Denman posted a picture of a Lug rigged  S 15 some time ago. Looks great! The Dutch BJ 17 uses a higher aspect ratio lug and a small mizzen (Like a mini Roxane)and that goes like stink! Points high, too. It seemed a bit tender at Beale Park in the gusts (Saw them bailing a couple of times) but it was unballasted, I believe.
 However, I bet you wouldn't consider changing the sail plan from the original, its just too versatile, isnt it. Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Hey, Michael! Still trading in Junk bonds? Is it true that the Chinese lug rig was imported to Yorkshire for use on cobles in the 9th Century but the Tykes were too mean to waste money on battens?

[Andrew Denman]

Here 'tis



really easy to use.

Andrew