I disagree that it defeats the purpose of the boat. True, it will add a step to the rigging, but you will retain all the other features of the boat like the high floatation, foward tramp, wings, coolers in hulls, etc... .

The purpose of adding a boom is not just to give the bottom of the sail some stiffness, but to allow a wider sail than the current one used (within limits of the boat design), giving extra sail area and extra power. A boomless rig limits the width of the sail to be between the mast and foward of the main traveler.

I was thinking the mod would be something extra and the original boomless configuration would still be available by using the original sail. The mast would simply have a slot to add a boom. You would need a wider sail to use the boom which you could purchase as an extra part giving you 2 different sails, thus the way to get extra power (boom and wider sail). This is why I called it a "getaway sport" and not a totally different boat. If you want to cruise you can go boomless. If you want to fly a hull and go fast or race you can put on the boom and the wider sail.

Does anyone have any idea if a wider sail, say 1 foot wider at the base, would make much difference? How about adding a boom?

Greg