Has anyone had experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack
Pack” type sail covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick recommends against them due to the height of the boom
which makes it very difficult to zip up the sail and the performance
penalty. On the other hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made
getting underway and putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more.
Any comments would be appreciated, especially on the
performance.
Bill Cormack sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out
of New Bedford Yacht Club, Padanaram, MA
I use mackpacks on my F-33. The main is
very easy since it is easily reach. The rear end of the mizzen takes a little
balancing (especially since I have a very large roach so a lot of sail
material aft). I am very happy with them. If the booms are high it must be even
hard to use regular sail covers so I would think that stack or mackpacks would
still be an improvement.
There are some details to consider on the
mackpacks so if you proceed let me know and I’ll give you my experience
on the design details.
With regular sail covers it used to take
me 15-25 minutes to put both on (ok they were probably tighter then they should
have been) and I had to stow them when underway. With the mackpacks takes me
about 5-7 mins total and sometimes 3 or less depending on how the sails fall.
Alan F-33 Hull #51 1982
Has anyone had
experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack” type sail
covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick
recommends against them due to the height of the boom which makes it very
difficult to zip up the sail and the performance penalty. On the other
hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made getting underway and
putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more.
Any comments would
be appreciated, especially on the performance.
Bill Cormack
sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht Club, Padanaram, MA
I put the North stack pack equivalent on
my F35. I am 6’ 2” and have a small 6” lanyard attached
to the zipper and can just pull it all the way forward without any additional
steps or ladders, but I do need the lanyard to lay over the side of the cover.
I love the ease of dropping the sail and zip your done with the main.
Has anyone had
experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack” type sail
covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick
recommends against them due to the height of the boom which makes it very
difficult to zip up the sail and the performance penalty. On the other
hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made getting underway and
putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more.
Any comments would
be appreciated, especially on the performance.
Bill Cormack
sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht Club,
Padanaram, MA
I’ve
never had a Mack or Stack, but I would certainly consider fitting one the next
time I buy sails. My new boat has a Hood StoBoom, the earliest in-boom
furling system. It has its problems (luckily, I also have the original
boom), but both my son and I have noted that when we tie up at the dock, that’s
it. No more climbing the mast to attach the front end of the sail cover,
as on the F30, and fitting endless numbers of latches around the lazy jacks.
It is probably mostly psychological, but it sure seems easier not to have to
deal with a sail cover.
I put the
North stack pack equivalent on my F35. I am 6’ 2” and have a
small 6” lanyard attached to the zipper and can just pull it all the way
forward without any additional steps or ladders, but I do need the lanyard to
lay over the side of the cover. I love the ease of dropping the sail and
zip your done with the main.
Has
anyone had experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack”
type sail covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick
recommends against them due to the height of the boom which makes it very
difficult to zip up the sail and the performance penalty. On the other
hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made getting underway and
putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more.
Any
comments would be appreciated, especially on the performance.
Bill
Cormack sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht
Club, Padanaram, MA
Posted by Rees Midgley (rmidgley@…>)
I concur with Fred and Alan. We own a 1986 36/38 and had Quantum Sails in Tortola, BVI change our lazy jacks to a sail pack with more supporting, lazy jack lines. Earlier we installed a rigid boom so concerns with loosening the support lines do not exist. We loosen the lines a bit while raising the main, and tighten them before lowering the main. The sail falls neatly into the pack. When we want maximum performance, we just fully loosen the lines and roll the pack up against the boom on each side. (photo attached)And yes, the one problem is zipping up the pack. I am 5 feet 7 inches and often make the job easier with a small, two-step ladder. However, a boat hook can do the job when a loop exists on the zipper.FWIW, we have just gotten rid of our ability to set reefs from the cockpit - something that almost never happened as intended. We installed hooks at the fore end of the boom. Now, I will just need to loosen the halyard to a marked spot, go forward and place a loop attached to the new tack on the main sail to the new hook, tighten reefing line which now only functions to bring the new clew fully down to the boom (with far less friction), then re-tighten the main halyard. Previously we had enough problems with the blocks attached to the tack reef point twisting or jamming that we had to go to the mast anyway. Now the task should be faster, problems of the fore blocks twisting will be eliminated, and we will be able to draw the clew reef point down to the boom more easily and fully. The hooks were just installed and I have not seen how the new system will work out in practice, but from all that I have seen talking with others, it should be a big improvement. - ReesOn Jun 16, 2008, at 2:42 PM, William A Cormack wrote:Has anyone had experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack” type sail covers on their F36/38? Harrstick recommends against them due to the height of the boom which makes it very difficult to zip up the sail and the performance penalty. On the other hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made getting underway and putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more. Any comments would be appreciated, especially on the performance. Bill Cormack sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht Club, Padanaram, MA
Attachment: (image/jpeg) DSC_0020.jpg [not stored]
I have two stackpacks on my 39 PH Schooner and with a lanyard on the
zipper there’s no problems at all. Love them. Keep the zipper lubed
with silicone or Harken sail slide spray and they work great. Only
downside is the sometimes tricky hoisting issue of keeping the battens
between the lazyjacks.
I’ve had the Mack Pack on my F36 for 6 years now. I’m not too
impressed with it. There is probably less effort involved using a
seperate sail cover than the Mack Pack cover. On the other hand, the
lazy jack system is better thought out and built than the original.
One note though: Mack Pack will give you a jack system with evenly
spaced legs. A full batten main requires more support at the leech
than at the sail track. Have Mack favor the legs to the aft half of
the boom with one leg about 18" from the outhaul sheeve. Also, have
them give you extra line on the main adjusting leg. Install a turning
block on each side of the boom where they reccommend attaching the
adjusting leg and run the extra length of line back to a cleat
installed at the end of the boom. Now you can adjust the lazy jacks
from the cockpit.
Has anyone had experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack” type
sail
covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick recommends against them due to the height of the boom
which
makes it very difficult to zip up the sail and the performance
penalty.
On the other hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made
getting
underway and putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed
more.
Any comments would be appreciated, especially on the performance.
Bill Cormack sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht
Club, Padanaram, MA
Posted by Ian Goodwin (igood0ne@…>)
I have a lot of experience with a stack pack, which was on my boat when I bought her. I have a Freedom 45 with a stack pack. I have quantum sails and they also built the stack pack. I have to admit my dismay with the stack pack. Probably my main complaint is the boom is very high, on this center cockpit boat. At the mast the boom is 5’ 7’ from the deck, and the top of the stack pack there is almost 11 feet. I don’t think I would be able to use a traditional sail cover because of the height. So under the circumstances the stack pack is probably the best option for this boat. I am 6’ 2" and I cannot reach into the pack when the main is lowered. Keeping the jack lines tight and heading into the wind and lowering the main is not a
problem, it only takes a few minutes. But it doesn’t stack very well without some manhandling. Unless it is stacked in some sort of neat way, zipping the cover is nearly impossible because the zipper will get stuck wherever the sail didn’t stack properly. At that height zipping the cover after wrestling the main into the pack properly is no easy task even though I have a line attached to the zipper to open and close from the boom end and the at the mast. Zipping can be aided by a boat hook. None of the above is a task that can be handled by my wife.
Raising the sail used to be a problem because the battens would occasionaly get hung up in the jack lines. I solved that problem by loosening the lines and gathering them along the mast and securing them out of the way while raising and under sail. I only tighten them when lowering the main.
I guess my only other complaint is the cover wasn’t designed properly and retained water until the sails were raised. I found this out the hard way. I have put lots of grommets in the bottom of the stack pack and the problem is solved.
Other than ensuring there is no drainage problem I would recommend that you have the maker use a very large zipper. Probably two sizes larger than they normally use.
When everything is zipped up, the size of the stack pack is almost like a 4th reef. The boat will sail in a stiff breeze under stack pack alone. Make sure there is a lot of drainage.
Ian Goodwin.
GoodWinds
----- Original Message ----From: William A Cormack <wacormack@…>To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.comSent: Monday, June 16, 2008 2:42:37 PMSubject: [FreedomOwnersGroup] “Stack pack” sails
Has anyone had experience using “Stack Pack” or “Mack Pack” type sail covers on their F36/38?
Harrstick recommends against them due to the height of the boom which makes it very difficult to zip up the sail and the performance penalty. On the other hand I had a Stack Pack on another boat and it made getting underway and putting the boat away so much easier that I sailed more.
Any comments would be appreciated, especially on the performance.
Bill Cormack sailing “Hard Earned” 1986 F36 out of New Bedford Yacht Club, Padanaram, MA
Posted by willie doyle (williedoylemom@…>)
We have Mac packs on our Freedom 35 and love them. Really makes that huge main easy to put away. In bad weather we can just drop it from the cockpit and deal with the little bit of stuffing and zipping later.Greg <gcantori1@…> wrote: I have two stackpacks on my 39 PH Schooner and with a lanyard on the zipper there’s no problems at all. Love them. Keep the zipper lubed with silicone or Harken sail slide spray and they work great. Only downside is the sometimes tricky hoisting issue of keeping the battens between the
lazyjacks.
I had UK’s Lazy Cradle installed this spring on my F36/38. It sure makes lowering the sail a lot easier. You need to get more battens through the lazy jacks and at 6’ it’s a reach to get the zipper all the way up, but they are minor compared to the ease of dropping the sail. With UK there are two options - loose footed main with the Lazy Cradle fitting in the grove in the boom or attaching tracks on either side of the boom. I opted for the latter the only draw back is the cost of installation.