Hi there fellow Mossiemaniacs, I'm thinking of experimenting with a boomless mainsail. I am guessing that this has probably been tried before.Is anyone "in the know" about doing this ?. I might have to modify the clew of the sail slightly. Something that may be a problem is that the foot of the sail extends aft of the rear beam, so the sheeting point will have to be approx. 30 cms. forward of the clew footboard. I realise that the setup won't be class legal, but I'm keen to experiment after some feedback. Thanks.

look at how the nacras are set up without a boom, couldn't say which nacras it is. they have a track on the outer end of the sail that is used to move the sheeting position fore and aft(similar to an outhaul setup)

My NACRA has a boomless mainsail. Its one of the things I'm disgruntled with. When the wind gets above 20 kts the bottom two battens quite regulary 'invert' ruining the shape of the sail. You have to back the main sheet off to get the battens to pop the right way around. Boomless is fantastic when you have kids on the boat but I don't think there are many other advantages.

The performance NACRAs have a boom - F18 and I17?

BTW I'm still thinking of the terrific sail I has at Eden on Phillip's mozzie. My 4.5 is for sale hope to get a Taipan or maybe a Mozzie by the start of the winter series.

Hi Glider,

The Mosquito building rules and restrictions state that there must be a boom and it must be straight. (section 12)

I have provided a link to the rules below:

Mosquito Building Rules and Restrictions

Section 14.4.1 also states that the mainsail shall be attached to the boom at the tack and clew.

So I guess that if you try a boomless setup it just won't be a Mozzie anymore.

The only good thing is that the mainsail leech and quarter leech distances only have maximum dimensions so you could shorten it to whatever you wanted. Power and performance would be compromised and you would potentially be shifting the centre of effort significantly forward.

Good luck with your projects.

Regards,

Peter