I've been thinking about that concept (soft wing, where you can raise/lower it with a halyard) since I first saw something similar on a windsurfer.

Question: Where did the fore stay attach?

And why no jib?

Also, if it does develop more lift than a traditional F18 mainsail, perhaps you can get away with a shorter mast/sail combo, helping reduce the weight aloft issue?

I would think this could work quite well on an A cat, where you don't have the jib/spinnaker issue. I wonder why we haven't seen that yet.