Sailing with Nine of Cups

As my years start to catch up with me, I am beginning to realize that making Nine of Cups easier to handle by “senior sailors” is a worthwhile objective. Our lazy jacks are a case in point. When we first started cruising, I didn't think twice about going forward in 30+ knots of wind to manhandle the main and secure it in place with sail ties while Marcie kept Cups pointing into the wind for the ten or so minutes the process took. Holding on dearly with one hand, as the roll of the boat tried to fling me overboard,was just part of the adventure. Now, as I most assuredly fall into the “senior” category, I can certainly see the advantages to such things as a lazy jack system.

Lazy jacks are a network of lines that are rigged to contain the mainsail when it is lowered. These lines run from a point high up on the mast to several points along the boom. As the mainsail is lowered, these lines make a cradle of sorts to keep the main from drooping down onto the deck. Sailors were once referred to as tars, and British sailors were called “jack tars” because of the union jack on the British flag. Legend has it that these types of sail taming lines were first employed by the British navy, and since the jack tars no longer had to work as hard as other tars to lower or reef the sails, these systems became known as “lazy jacks”.

I looked at what a multitude of other cruising boats had done. There seemed to be an even mix of commercially purchased systems and custom, owner built systems. I first looked into purchasing one of the commercially available lazy jack systems. Most were undersized for our size vessel, many were more complicated than I wanted, and all were more expensive than if I did it myself. After talking to several other yachties who had built their own systems, I decided to do the same.

For several illustrations and an expansive discussion of my implementation of a lazy jacks system on Nine of Cups, visit justalittlefurther.com.