loose footed mainsail

[norman lampe]

I have an opportunity to purchase a loose footed mainsail for my 25 O'Day w/swing keel, hence a short mast. The loose foot would probably come in handy for down wind but I'm concerned if I'll be able to point as well as with a conventional sail. Please advise.

 

[Paul Thurlow]

It sails great!

I have a Sobstad Loose Footed Mainsail that's 2 years old. I love it! I sail on the Mississippi River so the ability to point is important.

 

[Vic]

Do it ... most of the one designs are

loose footed or moving to it.I have one on a 272 and it is fine. Just keep in mind that you don't want it too long on the boom so you need to make sure you it fits with room to adjust. vicSeven

 

[John Dawson]

How do you reef?

a loose-footed mainsail. I use them on dinghies but am not familiar with them on larger boats. Do you just tie reef points around the boom?

 

[Bob]

Don't tie 'em to anything,

just make sure the reefed tack and clew are solidly secured. There are charterers in the Caribbean who will charge you for a tied-down main if it tears at the reef points. It's not as pretty, but if you need to reef the wind is up, and if the clew gets loose all the strain is on the aft-most reef point, which isn't made to take it.

 

[Jim Quibell]

Jiffy reefing works perfectly on loose footed main

Our Grampian 26 was outfitted with new Sobstad sails last spring. The main is loose footed, and came with a good length of Velcro fastening material that went through the clew cringle - then around the boom (wound a couple of times). Talk about pointing ability!!! We won our fleet (14 boats including C&C 25's and 27's, Tanzer 26 etc.) and the overall club championship for 2002 (93 boats registered for racing). Our Grampian 26 could outpoint every boat in our fleet by almost 5degrees - AMAZING. The ability to make minute adjustments to the main so easily is super.We have single reef points on the main and installed single line jiffy reefing. The single control line is led back to the cockpit, which makes for easy reefing when the wind pipes up over 20 knots on Lake Ontario. There are a number of small reefing tie lines parallel to the reefing cringles which we do tie on occasion, but usually we just pull on full outhaul, reef, flatten her out, and sail on.