Adding Lazy Jacks  Creatinga Gaff Boom Downhaul  Improving the Reefing System  For the  lazy jacks , I ran a pair of lines from stainless eye straps near the top of the mast through a pair of Harken cheek  mounted bullet blocks on either side of the boom, and then through a pair of SeaDog Clamcleat aluminum jam cleats. It is easy with the Clamcleats to tighten the lazy jacks when needed, and when fully released they hang with just enough  extra slack to allow the boom to come all the way down. They can exit the sail cover through the slot intended for the peak  halyard when the sail is down and covered. It's a single leg lazy jack, so does not contain the sail as well as a multiple leg system, but it gathers the bulk of the sail  together, and more importantly, it constrains the tip of the gaff boom, which otherwise might whack you in the head on its  way to dropping down and scratching the gelcoat or woodwork on the boat. The lazy jacks allow you to lift the main boom prior to raising the sail, putting less load on the halyards, and allow you to  relieve the weight of the boom from the sail to achieve better sail shape in light breezes. This technique combined with a  boom vang would also stabilize the main boom against rocking in waves and allow the sail to better hold its shape. All of the hardware I used was stainless and I bought a couple of new taps to make the threads in the mast and boom. The  spars are thin enough in most places that it really works out to be little more than one thread. Because of the mix of stainless steel and aluminum hardware and the aluminum mast and boom in a saltwater  environment, I coated all the pieces with Tef-Gel as I put it together. Added later : If I were doing this on a new boat is that I would locate the lazy jack blocks a bit further aft. On mine, there  were holes from a previous lazy jack installation. You want them near, but not past, the end of the gaff boom. That way they pass through the sail cover slot easily. I wanted to keep the  gaff boom downhaul  as simple as possible. I mounted a stand-up block near the base of the mast  on the starboard side and ran a line from the gaff boom gooseneck down through the block and then just straight across  the deck. The end is passed through one of the halyard cleats on the bulkhead and is stop-knotted. It doesn't look particularly neat with that line lying across the deck, but it's handy when you're in position to handle the  halyards, and that's all that counts. A quick tug when the gaff gets stuck in the mast track, and down she comes. I think this was the best modification of all,  since my wife seemed to like it best. I was dissatisfied with the  standard reefing arrangement  on the Sun Cat because it requires a single handed sailor to  be in two places at once. From the cockpit, you can control both halyards and you can take in the clew reef on the boom,  but setting the tack reef cringle on the hook requires a trip to the mast. I wanted to be able to do that from the cockpit. My solution was to install an eye strap on the port side of the boom as far forward as possible, and a cheek block on the  starboard side, also mounted as far forward as possible. A line goes from the eye strap through the cringle and down to the  cheek block, then aft along the boom to another SeaDog Clamcleat mounted on the boom. My reefing procedure is now: 1. Tighten lazy jacks to support boom above gallows.  2. Release peak halyard and ease to level gaff boom.  3. Release throat halyard and wish the throat would come down.  4. Tug on the downhaul when it doesn't, bringing the throat down a little more than the distance from the tack to  the reef cringle.  5. Tighten tack reef line and jam in cleat.  6. Tighten clew reef line and cleat on conventional cleat.  7. Tension throat halyard against main boom downhaul at proper height.  8. Tension peak halyard.  9. Release lazy jacks.  40