Loose Footed Mainsail

[oldragbaggers]

Again, you have all provided many perspectives that we may not have come up with ourselves. (And a couple of smiles to boot!)
There's only one thing I will comment on, and that is the lazy jack thing. We had them on our 28 (previous owner installed) and we hated them. We always thought we would like them, but Lance couldn't hack them off the boat fast enough. (Blog entry "Stuff That Stinks") They do serve you for a brief glimmering moment when the sail comes down. The rest of the time they just aggravated the hell out of us. We're pretty simple people. Been sailing without them for 28 years, happily. Can't imagine that our quality of life will be diminished for not having them now. We had a friend in San Diego who had a line (rope) for every conceivable purpose. His rig and deck reminded us of a spider's web sometimes. Once we arrived at the marina to find him attaching a toilet seat to the front of his Yamaha 25 (I couldn't possibly make this stuff up). We asked him what it was for and he said that he thought that he might be able to use it to make an effective spinnaker chute. (Lord help us.) And, by the way, when we were out sailing together he couldn't catch our Catalina 22, which was rigged with just the basics, on his best day. It seemed that he should have been easily able to overtake us, but I think he was so busy fiddling with all his lines that he forgot to just sail. Anyway, our 28 kinda reminded me of that with all the lines we had everywhere, and I'm not just talking about the lazy jacks. I commented to Lance on the way home with it that I thought maybe a nice toilet seat could be used as an effective spinnaker chute. He hacked the lazy jacks off shortly after that. More of our extra special purpose stuff will disappear over time. When we're done we'll be back to the basics, like God and Carl Alberg intended.
Thanks again to you all. The jury is still out here, but if it were strictly my choice, I think the boat would continue with an attached foot on the main. Can't speak for Lance. Will let you all know what we decide.
Becky

[Dean Abramson]

My main is attached to the mast normally with slugs.

It is zero hassle to drop; I find that having full battens adds makes the process easier, because they help keep the sail on the boom. They add some stability to the operation.

And now that we have added lazy jacks, it is very simple. You can wait to put gaskets on til later, Or sometimes not at all.

I think that what is happening with John V is that the way he keeps his prop (locked?/unlocked?) tends to make the boat actually accelerate forward when he drops the sail. Then the gust generated from that blows the sail in his face and causes him to have Luddite moments.

Dean

[Dean Abramson]

Sheesh. While I was rebutting Luddites, Becky impugns my lazy jacks!

Man, it's a cold world out there.

But you will see more of it in your allotted time, if you have a loose-footed main.

Dean

[M. R. Bober]

It had to be said.

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where loose feet can be corrected with orthopedic shoes), VA

[Dean Abramson]

Okay. Okay.

I really only bought the loose footed-main because I took a look at the crew one day and decided we already had too many slugs on this boat.

[oldragbaggers]

Dean, the impugning was completely unintentional. Of course every man/woman is entitled to their personal preference. It's just that those of us who do it the right way have a hard time understanding why others choose to do it the other way.

[Dean Abramson]

I totally understand.

It's like the way that we folks who do things efficiently cannot really understand people who do things right. ;-)

Dean

[oldragbaggers]

Touche

[rtbates]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is...

[John Vigor]

Dear John,
Although I appreciate your comments and expertise on the Loose Footed vs. Attached Mainsail, I am a bit confused on your logic.
Bob Emmons

Dear Bob:

Don't be confused. Logic is not my strong point. I'm all emotion, man, all feeling, all gut reaction.

I also like to stir things up a bit when I see a debate getting too one-sided and self-congratulatory. It's a character fault, I know, but I can't help it.

It's a sort of underdog syndrome gone wrong, and my shrink has given up trying to sort it out, so I have to live with it. For what it's worth, she says I deserve pity, not condemnation.

If everybody would just listen to me and get their feet attached I'd be a lot happier and easier to live with.

Cheers,

John Vigor

[mgphl52]

n/m...

-michael

Foot loose & Free-wheeling all the way!

[Frank Vernet]

OK - so can those of us with an attached foot just remove the slugs and go "footloose" or is there something about the design/cut of an attached mainsail that warns against such a step? I am intrigued by this discussion and curious to try something new.

[Carter Brey]

I'm thinking about removing the slugs from the mast side of my mainsail. Think of the infinite trimming possibilities offered by a combination of halyard-cunningham/uphaul-downhaul with this setup. Just follow the logic: if flattening the sail de-powers it, then making the headboard and foot meet at mid-mast for an airfoil whose cross-section is an expression of division by zero ought to acheive near-infinite velocities. I'm very excited and can't wait to try this.

On a related performance note, I had the yard remove my keel last week and am experimenting with ballast stones.

[Jim Davis]

The reason for this suggestion is along the lines of "Try it before you Buy it". Note Andy's comment about the slug limitation at the outhaul end. The short nylon slugs tend to bind like hell with any side loading.

[Sea Owl]

Carter;

Is that with your prop locked or unlocked???