What about this Mainsail??

[Transporter2112]

This Horstman has caught my eye. I've pretty well settled on Horstman tri's and this one looks great, but whats up with this main? The ad states that it has Reefurls on both the genni and main but I haven't found anything online about boomless loose footed furling mains. That main has no boom, and doesn't even make it to the top of the mast. Is that the way its supposed to be or did the owner just make something up? There are plenty of arguments about furling mains, loose footed mains, in-mast and behind mast furlers, but i've not seen boomless mains. Whats up here?

Also this boat doesn't seem to have the daggerboards either so it makes me think the builder may be trying to be "innovative".





Here's the link to the listing:

Used Horstman for Sale | Yachts For Sale | Yachthub

[robert sailor]

The drawback to this mainsail is that it will have a big sag in the middle going to weather which ruins the pointing BUT maybe its not an issue if you use the engine for that point of sail. It also loads the rig differently than a standard main.

[tomfl]

You would probably need to contact the designer and builder to get details on what is going on. I have seen boats where the owner did things like cut down the mast and/or extend the boom and put in a roller reefing main. I would guess this mod is more for ease of sail handling than performance. Depending on how the main sheet is run it might (or might not) be a nice setup for running down wind.

Bottom line for me would not be the theoretical numbers on paper but how the boat sails. Sea trials will answer your questions.

[Transporter2112]

I've just not ever seen anything like this. Kind of looks like a backward jib is on that furler. Im sure the owner rigged that up for ease of handling, but Tomfl is right, it may sail like a dream. There's only one way to find out.

[valhalla360]

I've seen the roller furler behind the mast and that's trading sailing ability for convienence. Purist sailors will hate it but given the number of times we've had fluky winds and we just don't both with the mainsail, I can see the advantage for a cruiser if it takes 5 seconds to roll the sail in or out.

The boom is a different issue. One of the main jobs of the boom is to hold the back corner of the sail away from the mast. Unless, the main sheet is set up to pull both down and back, it could be really limiting on the sailing ability, in particular upwind.

[StuM]

Boomless mains are common on Wharrams.

A friend has a Wharram 30ft cat that has one. That boat was sailed from Tonga to PNG and we cruised it around Milne Bay for a month in all sorts of weather conditions. The main works fine like that.

[Jim Cate]

Seems to me that if you start with a Horstman that isn't known for sparkling windward performance, remove the daggerboard and put on a mickey mouse boomless mainsail... well, I suspect that it will be motoring to windward most of the time.

That may be OK with you, and that's your choice... just should be aware of the issue.

Good luck with it

Jim

[Transporter2112]

Yeah, the lack of dagger boards worry me more than the weird sail. The sail can be changed, the dagger boards on the other hand.....

[bobconnie]

If like us, you don't much care about windward sailing ! (we bear off anytime ) This set up should make general cruiseing simpler! May not be a racers favorite, but it do have advantages for simple sailing ! Never haveing sailed one with or with out dagger boards, but knowing when they would be used, I feel I would sorta like this setup myself! But then as I said, we will sail an extra 2 or 3 hundred miles on a cruise, rather then beat !! But then we are old and never in a hurry !!

[44'cruisingcat]

I know the builder of this boat, we used to live near him. If you like I could see if he would be willing to answer questions about it.

[ozskipper]

Originally Posted by Transporter2112

Yeah, the lack of dagger boards worry me more than the weird sail. The sail can be changed, the dagger boards on the other hand.....

heh, What worries me is the sheer volume of "blue" inside the boat.. Arrg.. aside from that its kinda sexy in a weird kinda way. A bit like emo chicks perhaps.