calmitty

Sorry for the much delayed response to your question. I hope it isn't too late to be helpful.

First off, you need to consider the amount of windage and wave energy a mesh net will impart on the boat. A a general rule, I don't recommend mesh nets for sea-going journeys. I've had nets on boats that hit heavy seas, and the waves put the boat into a boatyard for some costly repairs , and only slightly damaged the mesh. Had they had an open net tramp, the wave energy would have passed harmlessly through the net.

I've seen some pretty nice net material on some recent boats like Lagoons, and some of the South African boats using Dyneema.

If you only sail coastal, and don't hit heavy seas, you may be ok with mesh. But, you have to keep in mind that heavy seas, the mesh is not in your favor. I believe the tramp square footage, compared to the overall weight of the boat will not be a big factor for windage though.