loose footed main

[mike]

I'm seriously considering cutting some off the foot of my main to raise the boom on my 23. I've been told that it's easy to do (by a sailmaker) and making the sail loose footed will improve performance. Has anyone done this and whaddya think? Are you any more tender for raising the boom about a foot?

 

[David R. King]

Loose-footed main

North Sails Mexico, here in Puerto Vallarta, is run by Mike Danielson, an experienced sailer and sailmaker. I follow Mike´s advice regularly. He cut a slice off of the foot of my main of my h26 in order to raise the boom off of the bimini, and slacken the topping lift when using the full main. He also recommended leaving the sail out of the slot and sailing with it loose-footed. I´m happy with the results. David King

 

[Caleb K.]

Just Did It

Just had my main recut (a pie-shaped piece beginning at the tack, 10" wide at the clew). Boom is now parallel to cockpit floor - a great improvement, much safer on the tack and jibe. Haven't notice any loss of performance. A good $100 investment.

 

[Kenneth Pfaff]

Did it on my old 23.5

When I had a bimini installed on my old 23.5, I had a pie shaped section of the main cut out and the boom raised uning the topping life. The bimini really made the sailing so much more enjoyable as we weren't baking in the summer sun. The only problem we had was the at time the topping lift would slip and rub against the top of the bimini. The only thing I cound figure that with the different angle the 'cam cleet' at the end of the boom couldn't handle the angle. Other than that everything was great.When we purchased out new 290, we difinitly wanted the bimini.