Maybe, the life span they were talking about was for the dedicated racers, I don't know. Or maybe they didn't think my existing sail was eligible to be converted (46.5' luff X 13.8' foot). I'll ask the next time I'm in. I guess the reason for all this questioning is I just want to make sure of something before I make a spendy investment. And I want to be able to handle the sail single handed with more ease than a footed sail. They did say a loose footed sail was less expensive.
It would be nice to just do away with the boom, but I guess you would need a stick out there before the wind. Although I have seen drawings of a Catamaran with a forward tilted mast at about 15 degrees that runs a large roller furling as the fore sail and a tri-sail as the so called main. It would be nice to see that in action.
Thanks for all the input and I'll probably go for a loose footed sail when I seriously get out there crossing the Pacific.
Education in process...............DelmarRey