if you have the boom attached to the rear-stay you can get stuck and unable to unhook the boom (unable to 'unclip'), or fill the sail and be unable to raise the main fully, or be knocked down by the wind as you have effectively sheeted in the main. for the above reasons having the boom 'loose' is safer and easier. additionally with the boom clipped to the backstay you must be heading 'exactly' into the wind. this isn't always safe/easy due to high seas. in this case you will head into the waves a bit off 'center' to keep the hull from pounding excessively. dave scobie M17 #375 - SWEET PEA visit SWEET PEA's www-site - http://www.m17-375.webs.com --- On Fri, 4/23/10, ndorf@surfbest.net <ndorf@surfbest.net> wrote: Hi Larry, Thanks for chiming-in. I point well taken regarding reefing but why would it be a problem raising the main? I'm trying to visualize this. A friend of mine has a Vagabond 17 and he has the aforementioned setup with no topping lift. Then again, he does mostly mountain lake sailing (relatively small lake--not like Coure de Alene) and I have never heard of him reefing because he wouldn't go out in heavy winds and would not be very far from any shore. But he does raise his sail with the boom end hooked on to a pig-tail (about 18" long) off his rear stay. I guess I'm just showing my inexperience in these matters. Anyway, truth is, I actually don't bother removing my topping lift while sailing even though it occasionally and slightly chafes the leach of the sail. Thanks Neil Original Message: ----------------- From: Larry E Yake leyake@juno.com Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:26:36 -0700
Plus, Sal, with a backstay you can do away with the need for a topping lift if you have a spliced-off section to hook the end of the boom onto just while setting up and taking down.
Well..... your topping lift is used for more than that. For instance, I wouldn't want to tie my boom to one of those snotter lines when I was tying in a reef. You don't want to be tied on to that when raising the main, either.