Loose footed mainsail

[alahol2]

The only bummer is that I will need to remove the sail stack bag as I have just noticed that there is a slider on the clew of the sail and will have to be slid into the boom from the mast end as at the moment all I have attaching it is the outhaul

You could try a temporary lashing round the boom just to give the setup a try.

 

[William_H]

Presumably the worst that could happen is ripping the clew out of the sail, because the cringle is only made to take the outhaul tension and not the leach tension?
Sails which are built to use a significant length of the bolt rope to connect the leach tension to the boom can be built and reinforced very differently from those designed to put all the leach tension into the boom as a point load via a single slider or strap around the boom.

I'd imagine the OP's sail would be 'modern' enough to be fine, but without seeing it, who knows?

I completely disagree with this aasertion. The bolt rope can never be made to take downward load on the sail body. ie the force of the main sheet when hard in. Always whether bolt rope or not the load must be taken by the clew eyelet. Both out haul and down ward force. As said no different to a reef. (no matter how old the design of the sail. ol'will