Hi again, Nick :)

I was advised to fit the top end of the lazyjacks underneath the spreaders about 8" to 10" OUT from the mast. This makes them angle out a little and less likely to snag the battens when you hoist the main. We generally leave them in place when sailing, as we spend a huge amount of time with 2 or 3 reefs in the main. (Photo shows lazyjacks with 3rd reef in main. We're making 6 knots or so in Tonga. Any more breeze we would roll the genoa and hoist the staysail on the inner stay... Bunt is ballooning, we're getting a stackpack to help this.)

I find I can generally hoist the main when a bit off the wind under genoa alone, the boom swings out with the main luffing free. I time my hoists to when the battens are between the lazyjacks.

Others loosen one side lazyjack and pull it out of the way whilst hoisting... might be worth the effort?

Harken most likely has good instructions on their website. Many have made "homemade" LJs, so try Google.

As Rob mentioned, here's what we do:

Lazy Jack Trick

Many folks complain about full battens getting caught up when raising the mainsail. They then spend a lot of time moving BOTH sides of the lazy jacks to the mast.

We developed an easier way with our lazy jacks.

We have a small cleat on the forward starboard side of the boom. When we put the halyard on the headboard, we move ONLY the starboard side of the lazy jacks forward and snug them under the forward side of the horn of this cleat.

Then, when we raise the mainsail, instead of going exactly head to wind, we bear off a tad to starboard so the wind is coming from the port side of the bow.

We then raise the mainsail and it doesn't get hooked on the lazy jacks even though the port side jacks are still there.

Been working for 13 years.

Yes, we have to go forward again to unhook the starboard lazy jack for dousing the sail, but there's never any hurry.

So, for those of you with lazy jacks, consider doing only one side.

Your boat, your choice.

I have the Dutchman system on my C36, but I used a variation of Stu's method on my C30. My lazy jacks were a single line adjustment system, where the lines looped under the boom; I think this was acording to Harken's instructions, but don't recall. I had a piece of shock cord attached to the upper blocks and run down to the mast near the gooseneck. When the lazy jacks were slacked via the control line, the shock cord pulled them down and forward. Worked well. Being single handed, I wanted to be able to adjust the lazy jacks and get them out of the way, without leaving the cockpit (don't want to find out how far I can swim;) ) Stu's method would work great too.