Annie,

Thanks for the suggestion and the compliments on our boat. We spent the day today at the dentist and painting the cabin house. 

The 1 time we tried leaving the sail in ready position it chafed nice deep grooves in the mast. We didn't realize that kind of chafe could occur in 12 hours! I will have to post photos. 

Even with the sail bundle lashed in that position it still seems to chafe, that's why we end up lowering it into the cradle each anchorage. Then the following morning it's time to climb on top and heft the sail out of the cradles.

Not sure how to post photos in text yet; bear with me as I learn our forum. I have begun posting photos of S/V Thymallus Arcticus in an album of the same name. Not sure if you can see my photos there but there are photos of our topping lift/lazyjack/cradle system.

James, I agree with Arne. Get the heavy sail bundle to the position it needs to be, just once, and leave it there. I use fixed Amsteel topping lifts, and rig a lashing between that and the sail bundle in such a way that it acts as a tackle when setting up the rig, then I tie it off at the middle of the boom and forget about it. I don't use gallows, but just tie some triangulating lines from the sail bundle to the deck to prevent swinging. 

So after speaking with Annie my girlfriend and I decided to join the JRA! Super excited. This is my first post but will make a better intro post in the general forum. 

When we Purchased Our Thymallus Arcticus (30' Steel Benford pilothouse), all rigging was present but not necessarily done properly as the previous owners never sailed the boat. It took us a lot of learning (let me stress a lot) and we cursed junk rigs plenty, but we now feel super comfortable and don't think we will ever go back to the triangle. We still have many questions but we will start here and I will post photos when I have them. 

Originally, the lazy jacks were comprised of 2 running parts. There were 2 running "halyards" with eyes that ran through sheeves at the masthead and then cleated off at deck. we finally departed from this arrangement when we couldn't run without guiding the sail around these lines. Now, I have static lines (3/16" amsteel) with an eye splice connected to the masthead. Through those eyes runs the lazy jack lines (3/16" nylon). They are comprised of 2 individual lines per side. On each side a line is laced under the aft of the boom ran up through eye splice from masthead line and then terminates in an eye splice forward. The second line then is laced under the boom at about midship, runs up through eye splice and then to base of the mast where it is cleated off on a peg. 

Now that works all well and good until it is time to lift sail bundle out of the cradle. The 2 of us are required to hoist the sail up out of this cradle into position. This entails me deadlifting (atleast my back is still young) while Jen takes up the slack and finally cleats both sides off. In flat water this isn't a big deal; you can imagine trying to raise sail atop the pilot house in a sloppy sea.

We read in the Practical Junk Rig that you can combine both of these running lines for hoisting into a 3-4 part tackle. I have been wrestling with how to do this for weeks but haven't come up with a good solution. 

Any Ideas?