Lazy Jacks --- Not needed when raising sail or underway -- the bitter end of the lazy jack halyard should be long enough that you can pull the lazy Jacks forward to the mast and secure them there before raising the Mainsail.
I have been sailing traditional schooners for most of my life and this is a standard rigging practice. Certainly for ease of raising the sail but more so because on a long passage the lines and any hardware will cause sail chafe!
In case anyone can enlighten me**
I do not understand why many charter boats dead end the Lazy Jack halyard at a cleat on the mast - with no extra line to use them properly.
Ordinary lazy jacks not attached to a stack pack is like you say relatively easy to drop and reset when dropping your sail.
On some stack packs the sail is sewn into the cover and the cover is supported by the lazy jacks, if you drop the lazy jacks the sail cover and the sail roll off the boom still attached to the jacks.
