Loose footed mains

[SeaDrive]

To give an answer to part of the original question: the motivating advantage to the sailmaker was that the it was cheaper to eliminate the the bolt rope on the foot and it didn't make much difference since the foot was only a shelf not transmitting any significant force to the boom. (As remembered from discussion about 15 years ago with Chris Wentz of Z-Sails)

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by Chris Krumm

It looks like Ian Farrier may be thinking about a boomless full batten main for the F22 that is still in development. See <http://www.f-boat.com/pages/trimarans/F-22info.html>.

Note the bottom batten appears to be heavier than the others in the sailplan and that the main sheet pulls down and aft. In the early '90's either Hobie or Nacra - can't remember which - had a similar thing going on with their 18' cat.

Actually it was the Dart catamaran from England that went boomless, then the NACRA 5.0 at my suggestion. This was around 1985-86 I believe.

In 1988 I decided to go with a boomless mainsail on my FireFly trimaran. It worked out great as we provided a circular traveler that actually bent inward a little extra at the ends to allow for a fuller main upon reaching.

[brian eiland]

IN MEMORIUM
* Frank Reynolds MacLear, the noted naval architect died at his home in
Watch Hill, on Sunday, July 11, 2004. He was 84.

In a career which spanned nearly seven decades, MacLear stood out for his imaginative boat designs and his ability to translate personal sailing experience into practical concepts. He was an outstanding yachtsman, expert navigator and accomplished ocean racer. The yachting world has lost an outstanding member.

MacLear worked for the world famous yacht design firm, Sparkman &
Stevens, Inc. before opening his own firm, MacLear & Harris, Inc., in 1959.
He participated in more than 700 design projects including commercial and
military, but focused on large private sailing yachts drawing on his many
years' experience sailing more than 300,000 miles all over the world.

He was the inventor and innovator of the boomless mainsail and remote-controlled luff roller furling. An expert navigator, MacLear navigated numerous ocean races. He was the navigator for the 1958 America's Cup challenger Weatherly. He made seven Bermuda races, eight trans-Atlantic crossings and three trans-Pacific crossings.

(It was Frank MacLear that inspired me to consider utilizing boomless mainsails, and so I will add a few of his designs below)

[brian eiland]

Actually this is not a boomless design, but it was the predecessor to several of his boomless cutters.

From 'The Proper Yacht', "In a cutter such as the MacLear & Harris designed Angantyr, two sails instead of one are set in the foretriangle. This rig has much in its favor for cruising. Despite her size, the 61-foot Angantyr has been sailed by small crews on most of here passages, which include seven Atlantic crossings. Her owner has made one of the latter singlehanded. Twin centerboards give Angantyr the ability to enter practically any harbor (board up draft is only 5 feet), and to match the lateral plane of the hull to almost any sail combination for good balance."

She was a powerful cutter rigged world cruiser that could navagate her home based shallow Chesapeake Bay

[brian eiland]

I believe there were more vessels built to a design similar to those two I post here. But Think you can see there heritage from Antanyr.

The boomless mainsails are sheeted to the fixed backstays, in this case 3 of them.

[brian eiland]

Now I can imagine updating these rigs with vertical-battened mainsails....