Well, Rick, that alien voice is in my head too. It's good to hear someone
say the same that I have concluded about lazy jacks, which is that they
cause far more problems than they solve. The grand total of problems that
they solve, in fact, is a mere 1 (taming the main when dropped). On the
other hand, the problems they either will or can create is vastly greater
than 1. That certainly is the case on Alcyon. Ours in fact have been the
cause of many snafoos, some bordering on being dangerous. One of these, in
fact, was the downwind take-down situation you referred to.

Last season we were out I started experimenting with not using them at all,
and what a pleasure raising and dropping the sail became. I can get the
main up & down fast, reliably, no hassles, under every condition we
encountered. Yeah, when it's dropped you get a heap, but it can be tamed
easily and straightened up just fine, later if necessary. I suppose it's
not terribly "graceful" but in my book safety and reliability come first.

I have to go up the mast to replace the anchor light bulb this week and I'll
probably remove our lazy jacks on the way down.

Steve, Panda 40 Alcyon



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Received on Wed Jun 08 20:44:04 2005