Interesting problem

[Topcat47]

I was asked, recently, if there were any sailing dinghy's with a loose footed mainsail. I've a feeling that the Drascomb Dabber was one such, but cannot tank of any others. The guy's in North America so the Drascomb probably wouldn't be an answer for him, anyway.

 

[srm]

Not just the Dabber, both the Drascombe Longboat and the Lugger had loose footed mains and mizzens; they used the same rig scaled to the hull length.

 

[RAFFY]

Mirror dinghy?

 

[Easticks28]

Topper ?

 

[Easticks28]

Falmouth Bass boat.

 

[scruff]

Off the top of my head;

Laser
Buzz
ISO
Most of the RS range
Phantom
Topper
Pico

Quite a few dinghies don't have a bolt rope footed main.

 

[Wansworth]

There’s something called the Goat island skiff,it’s American and it’s on youtube,looks the business?

 

[ianc1200]

My smacks boat is.

 

[TernVI]

Loose footed as in no bolt rope, vs not having a main boom.

Dart catamarans are perhaps the most successful/mainstream/modern(ish) 'dinghy' in the UK to have no boom, if you care to include them?

 

[DownWest]

Depends if you mean only attached to the boom ar the tack and clew or, no boom, like the Drascombes. As Tern says

Wands, Goat Island Skiff is by an antipodean by the name of Mickel Storer . few other nifty designs

 

[MikeBz]

I was going to say that most dinghies have loose-footed mains these days, then I read @TernVI's post and realised that the OP probably means not having a boom as opposed to not having the sail attached all the way along the boom (either by lacing or a bolt rope in a groove).

 

[zoidberg]

Richard Roscoe's 31' Farrier F9-AX carbon racing tri had a boomless main.... and full battens. It was swift, taking Class Wins, in 2003, in 4 out of 5 RORC Starts, ( including The Fastnet ) - and a Second.
But not really a dinghy....

 

[fairboy]

Phantom came tot my mind

 

[TernVI]

Richard Roscoe's 31' Farrier F9-AX carbon racing tri had a boomless main.... and full battens. It was swift, taking Class Wins, in 2003, in 4 out of 5 RORC Starts, ( including The Fastnet ) - and a Second.
But not really a dinghy....

Multihulls can get away without a boom better, they can use wide traveller systems,
and being faster down wind, they don't need to let the main out so far so don't miss the kicker as badly as you would in a dinghy.

 

[davidej]

Multihulls can get away without a boom better, they can use wide traveller systems,
and being faster down wind, they don't need to let the main out so far so don't miss the kicker as badly as you would in a dinghy.

An in the case of the Dart, the full length bottom batten acts a bit like a boom.

 

[DownWest]

SO, we need Topcat to come back and define quite what his friend was asking. Loose footed, or boomless. BTW, there are a few Drascombes in the US.

 

[Aquaboy]

and the first thing many Drascombe owners do is fit a boom! They are useless without almost being to the point of dangerous.