Hi Dan, I am considering doing the same things to the main on my 17. The loose foot will help sail shape quite a bit. There is a good photo on this site of a beefed up outhaul arrangement that permits you to easily put the proper tension in the foot of the sail while standing safely in the cockpit. It involves somewhat of a "cascade" of blocks along the boom. Very nicely done and unobtrusive. I am planning on using that system on my boom in the near future. Another bit of advice I read was if you have your sailmaker space the slug that lies above and the slug that lies below the luff cringle that forms the new tac when you reef, far enough above and below that cringle you can pull that cringle down to the gooseneck hook when reefing and still allow all your slugs to remain in the mast track. To shake out the reef, all you need do then is slip the cringle involved off the gooseneck hook and hoist the sail. No fiddling with putting any slugs back into the mainsail track. As long as you are fiddling with the outhaul block and the clew cringle you might consider placing a small single sheave block with hook on the clew outhaul line. Place it between the clew cringle attachment point and the outhaul block at the end of your boom. Them when you want to reef all you will need to do is place the hook end of the block through the next cringle up the leech and it will haul in tight when you retension the outhaul thereby pulling the reef down tight to your boom also. Your ideas about your main are all good. fairwinds, Tom B, M17, "AS IS"