David, pretty country that you live in, Northern Idaho. A good Navy friend recently abandoned overpriced San Diego for your neck of the woods, and could not be happier. My mainsail came with (plastic) sail slugs in the luff, and they do a perfect job keeping the mainsail's luff attached to the mast. A boomkicker to keep the boom from dropping sounds great; I use a topping lift, but have forgotten to rig it at times. I don't try to get picture-perfect flaking of my mainsail when rigging my boat for launch or dropping the main in preparation for landing; I just drop the main and flake it in a reasonably orderly fashion as it comes down, then use five or so elastic sail ties to bundle the main. And, that's how I store my boom in my cabin, with its sail-tie bundled main still attached. In conjunction with the sail slugs, I use a Davis sail track stop to keep the sail slugs from inadvertently falling out of the mast sail slot. They're easy to lose, so carry an extra or attach it to the mast. To ease flaking of my main, I installed a home-brew lazy jack system. It worked well, but rigging it added a few minutes to my setup time, and I quickly found that I valued quicker setup more than easier flaking/better mainsail control. Have fun tinkering! Sincerely, John Bella (628)