I've had fixed ladyjacks on the boat for a while now, and they've really helped keeping the sail and yard controlled and contained on the water, especially when dropping the yard and sail. The 2 areas where they've been a little deficient is when initially rigging the boat, and getting everything out of my way when motoring/sculling/coming up on the dock. The height hasn't been adjustable. I decided to make them adjustable with another dumb sheave at the mast head over the one for the halyard. I reinforced the sides with some Ply before drilling the new hole as I'm pretty close to the tip with it.
I'll have a running line down the front of the mast that will let me slack them far enough to easily attach to the boom without the yard hoisted. before I had to lift the rig somewhat to attach the lazyjacks, and that was best done by hoisting the yard on the trailer before launching. If there was any siginifcant wind and it wasn't from dead ahead, that was a bit of a struggle. Once rigged, I'll now be able to hoist the boom to whatever level I currently desire, including well above the slot for sculling, motoring and coming into the dock. I can also fine tune the tension for whatever reef I'm currently on.
The second thing I've done is rectify a problem I've had since i built the boat. When i made the leeboard, there wasn't enough width on the stock to leave the "ear" at the top for the downhaul and potential uphill. so I just drilled a hole in the corner. This made for some leverage issues on the up haul, and left the board a bit wiggly when up hauled in the water. So I laminated the ear on. Hopefully this will be strong enough for the lateral loads when raised. Plenty strong for the uphaul/downhaul function.
As soon as the last coat of paint dries, I'll get it all rigged up and show the functionality of the new lazy jack system.
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