Gary wrote:

I asked the guys at Sailing Anarchy about the backstayless racer and the
kite that we were discussing. Check out the designers answer:
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/

I saw that, but didn't think of our earlier discussion. For
one thing, the rig of the Shaw boats is a bit different, the
upper stays go right to the mast head. He says the main
doesn't add any support, but I'm not convinced. If you look
at the picture lower down on the same page of the Shaw 25,
the main is not eased very much (it's not on the spin sheet,
which runs to 1/2 way out the rack) and the leach is only
slightly open. This is in fairly light air though.

While I agree that "if it breaks, it wasn't strong enough"
there are certain things you should not expect to do with
certain boats.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King