If you want to do it, do it! In relation to the rest of the project of building a mainsail, the square top dont add any extra work or cost. The only cost is in new battens and invested time in figuring out how make it fast both design wise and in real sailing.

About dacron in square tops. You will probably want a radial layout and that is pretty hard to cut by hand without templates (and even then it is not trivial). A crosscut layout will give a lot of forces needing to be transferred on the bias of the cloth leading to stretch and deformation. Perhaps you can find a good deal on some Maxx cloth directly from Contender? That would also save you quite some stitching, especially if you choose to glue the panels together.


What LSZ-1 clone did you get, what did it cost, what are the differences to the LSZ-1 and what have you built with the machine so far? I am in the market myself so I am checking options.

How do you intend to design the sail? By laying it out the old way, Sailcut GPL software or something else?