Testing the New Lazy Jack Bag

Was contacted by a trimaran sailor from the UK, Chris, with positive comments about the content of my blog. We shared a few emails and discussed the features and revisions of the next incarnation of the 6 meter trimaran from Astusboats; the 20.5. As it happens, Chris has crossed the pond annually for the past three years to compete in a Florida local expedition survival endurance race, the Everglades Challenge, put on by the Watertribe kindred spirits folks. The EC, as it is affectionately called, is just one of a number of Watertribe endurance events. This one certainly has some notoriety of confrontation with nature, for an on-water journey, through personal triumphs in strength, tenacity and courage by paddling and/or sailing your small vessel of choice for about 300 miles in eight days or less, south down the Florida Gulf coast from St. Pete Beach to Key Largo. There is another Astus 20.2 owner from Orlando, Mike, who competed in previous ECs with his son. Tough part for them is in the no wind situations where they paddle. That is another story. So while Chris is in town, he took a break from his EC prep work we and used this test sail opportunity to run a quick demo sail and lazy bag trial with me on embouchure out through Bunces Pass.

I needed to get embouchure out on the water and test the rigging of the new lazy jack bag and working the main sail up and down the mast with the sail slides. Chris was more than willing to helm the boat, enjoy a demo sail on the trimaran that he had been reading about in this blog. Just goes to show that if you read this blog, send me an email with good conversation and ideas exchange, you show up in town, then we schedule a demo sail on the beautiful west coast of Florida. So we go out on the water for a couple of hours. Chris got to see first hand what happens to me when I take the boat out with several new items to try. Word of caution here, should only do one modification at a time, then try each separately on the water.

In this case the big mod was the lazy jack bag. Looks nice, but did not have a chance to re-pack the bag at home, so I flew the main out of the bag first time at the dock (thank goodness for light air). Well there were a few twists and turns and the clew finally came out somewhat snagged and twisted. I really should have pulled the sail out at home and packed it like a parachute rigger should. But no matter, Chris was more patient and entertain in how I solved that problem, besides giving me good observations on the sail going up the mast and the battens snagging on the lazy jack lines.

One thing worked, the lazy jack lines with a kite block balancing the tie length to the lazy bag. I had measured that out with the mast in the driveway on two saw horses and boom lazy jack bag on two roll around carts. I had lashed a micro block on each spreader bar a few inches from the mast. The cut lengths of 4 mm dacron braided line worked out just fine when I had the mast on the boat. I use snap clip carabiners to hold the lazy bag mide boom hold up lines in four places (two each side). Need to add two more biners for the lazy bag front end lines hold up to the mast rigging thingys (technical term for the mast side mounted swivel items for the jib sheet clips when lateral stabilizing during mast rigging up and down). The lazy bag aft has a captive zipper end that needs support line to the topping lift.

I fabricated two aluminum panels for the sail slide feed slot. Another item that did not test as well as as expected. The idea was to open the slot for initially feeding the sail slides into the slot. Need to refine the fabricated knob bolt that holds the adjustable plate; the knob diameter is a bit too big for easy slide clearance. Because of the angled top batten, I have to drop all of the slides out of the mast track to get the main sail to lay flat into the bag and zipper shut. When the main is fully up, the last bottom slide completely clears the slot feed opening. More experience with raising the main, may lead me to not use the slot plate altogether. Could just go with a slot gate closure device I have on the work bench. After initially raising the mast, can drop the main down that point to douse the sail. That would leave maybe just the top batten (angled) and bit more sail exposed, say when beaching for a spell, or docking.

So the test sail was in light winds. The puffs were giving us maybe up to 7 kts on beam reaches with just the jib as I did not bring the gennaker as the wind predictions were higher. Besides the test was with the main sail up down stuff (too many new items to test on this trip). Chris liked the response of the helm. He was also impressed on the interior size and space. Chris is 6 ft 2 in and said he felt very comfortable inside. Chris said he used to own a Magnum 21 trimaran. That is what started his enthusiasm for trimarans.

Chris competes in the EC by sailing and peddling a Hobie Tandem Island, a very popular boat for this en devour. I have agreed to be his shore support and will pick him up and his TI on trailer for the return ride north from Key Largo next week on Saturday.