Lazy Jack

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Lazy jack (or lazyjack) is the name given to part of the rigging on sailing boat (generally a modern bermuda rigged yacht). The purpose of lazy jacks is to ease sail handling, particularly for short-handed crews. They enable the rapid dropping of a sail attached to a mast and boom by guiding it into the sailbag.

The lazy jacks, usually one each side of the sail, are rigged between the mast and the top of the sailbag attached to the boom or the boom itself. Typically they will be composed of several lenghts of cordage and rigged from a single point on the mast dividing and spreading out to several points on the sailbag or boom.

The major advantages of this system over other types of sail handling system for this type of sail, such as in-mast or in-boom roller reefing, are the lack of distortion to the sail as it is reefed, which preserves its efficiency and power, and the abillity to carry a more stiffly or even fully-battened sail. It is also cheaper than other systems. The disadvantages are its tendency to foul the sail during hoisting, especialy if the sail has protruding battens, and the fact that at least one crew member will have to go on deck to fully stow the sail.