In article ,
wrote:

I am not sure which is better the Dutchman or Lazy jack Sail Flaking
Systems.
Other prefer to have in the mast main fuller for cruising.
I am looking at this new boat and cannot make up my mind which system to
get.
I wonder if someone can offer some comments based on their own experience.
TIA

I have owned a Dutchman and Lazy Jack system. My Dad had Roller Furling.

His system fouled once which given his age was a b_tch.

Dutchman and Lazy Jacks work great. For semi-single handing, either
makes life easier. However, both really require heading into the wind to
drop the sail. I believe there are a few Lazy Jack systems (e.g., EZ Jax
and Jiffy Jax, etc.).

I prefer my Dutchman for two reasons. First, nothing is more magical
than having one's sail automatically flake on the boom. Not only does
the sail stay up, it stores itself automatically after a brief training
period. Elegant and time saving, especially with a longer boat.

Second, my Lazy Jack system required going forward to unclip the lines
(if I did not clip them to the mast they rattled around or flapped
against the main). My Dutchman is always there, invisible and silent. I
do have to adjust the topping lift before and after raising and lowering
the main, but I rigged the line back to my cockpit and it takes seconds.

Neither system interferes with reefing (if anything, the Dutchman helps
keep the excess sail out of the way).

If I did not respond to a concern you have for these two systems, just
ask.

Harlan

--
To respond, obviously drop the "nospan"?

In article ,
Harlan Lachman wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

I am not sure which is better the Dutchman or Lazy jack Sail Flaking
Systems.
Other prefer to have in the mast main fuller for cruising.
I am looking at this new boat and cannot make up my mind which system to
get.
I wonder if someone can offer some comments based on their own experience.
TIA

I agree with everything Harlan said... I have the Dutchman on my
boat... works great and the "training period" for the sail was very,
very short. I've used LJs a lot, and I like them fine. My experience
with them is that they tend to catch battens on the way up, which is
really annoying, especially when single-handing. I just want to do it
one time, not up/down, up/down. That's why I went with the
Dutchman. Neither, as Harlan said will interfere with reefing, but I
do like the Dutchman better here also... fewer lines in your face.

The downside to the Dutchman is two-fold... you have to modify your
main and you have to modify your sail cover. Thus, you can just slap
on a new main when it needs to get replaced if you want to continue to
use the Dutchman system.


--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

In article ,
lid (Jonathan Ganz) wrote:

In article ,
Harlan Lachman wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

I am not sure which is better the Dutchman or Lazy jack Sail Flaking
Systems.
Other prefer to have in the mast main fuller for cruising.
I am looking at this new boat and cannot make up my mind which system to
get.
I wonder if someone can offer some comments based on their own experience.
TIA

I agree with everything Harlan said... I have the Dutchman on my
boat... works great and the "training period" for the sail was very,
very short. I've used LJs a lot, and I like them fine. My experience
with them is that they tend to catch battens on the way up, which is
really annoying, especially when single-handing. I just want to do it
one time, not up/down, up/down. That's why I went with the
Dutchman. Neither, as Harlan said will interfere with reefing, but I
do like the Dutchman better here also... fewer lines in your face.

The downside to the Dutchman is two-fold... you have to modify your
main and you have to modify your sail cover. Thus, you can just slap
on a new main when it needs to get replaced if you want to continue to
use the Dutchman system.

Cap JG,

On my main sail cover, all they did was take my existing one, see where
the dutchman lines showed up on the boom and sew in zippers to allow the
lines to come out the top. IIRC, I have three on a J/100. What approach
did you take?

I forgot that I did have to go to add a loose foot to my footless main
but otherwise there were no mods and no one sailing her has seen any
performance or sailing issues.

You also point out one weakness of the furling main for those who like
battens (especially full ones for light air). Don't most furling mains
preclude battens?

h

--
To respond, obviously drop the "nospan"?

In article ,
Harlan Lachman wrote:
Cap JG,

On my main sail cover, all they did was take my existing one, see where
the dutchman lines showed up on the boom and sew in zippers to allow the
lines to come out the top. IIRC, I have three on a J/100. What approach
did you take?

I did the exact same thing myself, except that I did the cutting and
sewing... Not a bad job, depsite my lack of sewing machine skills. :-)

I forgot that I did have to go to add a loose foot to my footless main
but otherwise there were no mods and no one sailing her has seen any
performance or sailing issues.

You also point out one weakness of the furling main for those who like
battens (especially full ones for light air). Don't most furling mains
preclude battens?

I was actually talking about getting hooked on the LJs while raising
the main (no furler), but I believe that's true about not having them
available for in-mast furlers. I supposed something could work for a
boom furler... no experience with battens and furling mains, however.

I also removed the dangling intermediate lines the last owner had on
the main. The Dutchman does a nice job of keeping things tidy.


--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com