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In article . com,
wrote:

Its 2005, why do we still have to do this silly pointing into the wind
to get the main up or down or to reef it. Surely someone could come up
with a way to reef or get the main up or down on any point of sail. I
know most sailors are conservative but I am not so if ya got any ideas
let me know.

Well, if you're old enough, you'll remember that this wasn't a problem
with many of the old sailing boats. They didn't have mast rails/tracks.
The sail on a gaff-rigged boat was secured to the mast by mast hoops and
could be dropped without having to point into the wind.

ron