Hi All,

I got a bloke to do up a mainsail bag so that I can drop main by myself etc....he came out with the bag being approx 2 feet short and a secondary part that goes around the mast and ontop of the mainsail bag...

I looked at all pictures and they seem to have a one piece bag that wraps around the mast...I did say that to him and he said that this is a better design, though my issue is that if i drop the sail in the bag, some of the main sail may get caught by wind before i put up the second part to cover it up....

Or is this a usual design?

This is quite normal, it is the way most production boats eg. Hanse do it . It allows you to sail with out the bag flapping round. If you look at the photo of my boat you will see that it is the same as yours.

A tip to stop your sail flapping round and get the sail to completely drop into the bag is to tie a small string (6mm) from the head of the sail to the top sail reel point. The string should pull tight when the sail is hoisted. When you drop the sail you can grab the string and pull the sail down hard to the boom and tie it off. This is very helpful in heavy weather. PS this only works if you have sliders.

that sounds like a standard set up , same as mine ..... if you have a full height zip either side up near the front . you can choose to take the front section completely off .

or zip it down only to the height of the sides and fold it in around the mast .

works well

Thanks guys....the comments make sense and I will test out shortly...the chap assures me that this is best setup and I just wanted to get a second opinion...I particularly like the idea of a dousing line...thank you Jode5!