is it ok to sail with the main halyard held only by the cleat at the base of the mast on the H16? any risks or downsides except obviously a slight loss of performance since the sail wont' be as tight?

Reason I'm asking is that we often leave the H16 tied to the "big" boat on weekends and it's a little hard to unlock the catch at the top of the mast while floating. It would also be nice on windy days to be able to drop the main right before coming along side and coast in.

I would think it would be not be the best idea. It would probably cause some mast compression. Think about how much the mast flexes if you really pull down on the main halyard to uncleat it from the hook at the top.

I regularly raise mine while floating. It gets easier with practice. Turn it up into the wind and you almost have to plan in advance what side everything is going to be on. I'm light so I'll walk out on the hull and cleat it.

thks, didnt' think about mast compression although in light to medium condition with the halyard pulling straight down it shouldn't flex much. good point though. I was also concerned about the halyard rubbing against the catch at the top.

raising the main is easy, the problem is dropping it... I'm 225lbs (yeah, maybe we need a bigger cat!) and while i can walk to the bows to unlock the main, i havne't tried that while the boat is still moving :-)

It can be done with practice. I usually trailer sail, so in light winds I'll pull up to a dock, point the boat into the wind, tie it to the dock and drop my sails.

Without the halyard locked the sail can pull out of the luff track.

Without the halyard locked, the cleat can be pulled right off the mast. (Pulls the rivets right through the plastic cleat.)

About 10 years ago, I saw a guy who was using the tail of the halyard as a tow line. He didn't tie it off on anything, so all the load was on the cleat. It didn't take too long before the cleat pulled off the mast - even at a slow towing speed. Once the cleat pulled off the mast, he was being towed by the top of his mast. You can tell this story did not have a happy ending.