The main and mizzen canvas sail covers are 16 years old. The Sunbrella material was in good shape and we did some re-stitching over the years, but I’m always looking for something that improves or simplifies sailing.

A stack pack combines lazy jacks with a sail cover. It allows the cover to remain in place while sailing. A continuous line with blocks is attached to a zipper along the top of the cover, so all you need to do is unzip the cover while standing anywhere along the boom, hook up the halyard, and raise the sail. When dousing the sail, just release the halyard and the sail drops down into the cover, which is held up by the lazy jacks. No more removing sail covers, stowing, then putting back on when done sailing.

The stack packs were made by Mack Sails and is one of their specialty items they make (they call it the Mack Pack). The design and quality is great. All you need to do is make a few measurements (very accurately), and they build them to fit your boat. Since I built my own lazy jacks years ago, I requested they remove that item from the kit. I added 3 options that I believe to be well worth it:

• round battens that run along the top length of the covers on both sides make for a cleaner installation and more uniform look
• lining the inside of the covers with Dacron sail cloth to prevent the sail from chafing against the canvas
• ss brackets to fasten the aft end of the pack as opposed to tying it off to the topping lift

I also improved my lazy jacks by adding an extra leg to the main (went from 3 legs to 4) and the mizzen (went from 2 legs to 3). As with the original jacks that I made, I used grey amsteel line which is thinner and stronger than yacht braid. I also kept my design of running the jacks down the mast to a Spinlock cam cleat instead of using a horn cleat on the boom.

Installation was not too difficult, but did take some time especially since I had to modify the lazy jacks. The attachments of the cover to the mast was the hardest part and I spent a lot of time getting it to look good. The mizzen cover was more difficult to install because of how high the mizzen boom is, plus it requires working around the bimini. In the end, I was very please with the results.