I have decided to lower--furl, tie away against the mast--the lazyjacks. That removes the need for slots in the mainsail, with six additional fasteners each, which meant my cover had 32 snaps. That was a continuing irritation, since it took a bit of time to seat the cover around the lazyjack slots, and sail cover duty took far too much time.
The new cover needs no slots. I will now remove sail cover and raise the lazyjacks at the slip. They are therefore available while sailing and reefing and raising and lowering. After return to the slip I will put gaskets on the boom first , then derig the lazyjacks. We'll see if that's less work.
I couldn't live without lazyjacks. The 38 mainsail is heavy with four full length battens, and I rarely have an experienced crew to wrastle a free sail onto the boom and secure it. Of course, with a full crew, it would give them something to do....
When singlehanding, which I define as any time you're the only one aboard who's not a supernumerary, lazyjacks are invaluable.