If the sail is new from the sailmaker's loft, only haul the head out hand taut or you will ruin it. I have seen yacht skippers clap a "handy billy" tackle on the head of a new mainsail and haul on it till they could get no more. I have seen them treat the foot in the same way, the result being a great bag of canvas of no possible use in beating to windward. A mainsail costs a good deal of money and is easily spoiled. One of Mr. John M. Sawyer's splendidly cut sails can have all its utility and beauty taken out of it in half-an-hour by a lubberly sailing master.
After the head earring is passed, lace the head of the sail to the gaff, taking a half hitch at each eyelet hole. Next seize the luff of the sail to the mast hoops with marline. The foot of the mainsail should next be made fast to the boom in the same manner as the peak, the lacing going round a wire jackstay rove through eyebolts on the top of the boom. Do not "sweat up" either the throat or peak halyards too taut the first time you set it, and avoid reefing a new sail. Lower it down altogether, set the trysail, or do the best you can under head sail and the mizzen if on board a yawl. A mainsail should always be allowed to stretch gradually, and the slack of the head and the foot should be taken up at intervals. Remember that no greater injury can be done to a new sail than to try and make it sit flat by hauling out the foot too taut before it has been properly stretched. The best authorities advise that the sail should be set with the leech slack, and the boat run before a strong wind for several hours. Another excellent plan is to hoist the sail up with the foot and head slack while the boat is at anchor, and as it flaps about in the breeze the sail will stretch without injury. Of course when the head and foot are thoroughly stretched they can be hauled out taut as they can be got.
Personally, I prefer a mainsail with the foot laced to the boom, but all are not of my way of thinking. A loose-footed mainsail still has admirers and this is how it works. The mainsail outhaul consists of an iron horse on the boom, a shackle as traveler, a wire outhaul made fast to the shackle and rove through a sheavehole at the boom end and set up by a purchase.
GEAR FOR HAULING OUT LOOSE-FOOTED MAINSAIL.
If the mainsail is of the loose-footed variety it should be fitted with a tack tricing tackle and a main tack purchase. The last named is handy for bowsing down the luff of the sail "bar taut" for racing. Sweating-up the throat halyards lowers the peak slightly, and peaking the sail slackens the luff. By hauling up on the main tack tricing tackle till you can get no more, and at the same time lowering the peak, the mainsail is "scandalized" and the boom can then be gybed over in a strong breeze with the least possible risk of carrying away something.
To prevent masthoops from jamming when the mainsail is being hoisted or lowered, a small line is seized to the foreside of the top hoop and then to every hoop down the mast. When the throat halyards are pulled on, the foresides of the hoops feel the strain and go up parallel with the after sides. The accompanying figure shows this at a glance.
It is true that this method has found little favor with amateurs, but I tried it with great success on my first cruising craft, and later on in a yacht of far greater pretensions. The "wrinkle" should by no means be despised.