Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:04 pm
Hmmm ... good question. Never heard of a main downhaul, at least not on a boat the size of the DS. I guess it's because you can just let out the mainsheet/boom in a gust, and if it gets to survival mode, it's easy enough to either reef or drop/gather in the main altogether, from the cockpit. With the jib, on the other hand, if you just let the sheet out, it will flog violently (bad for the sail, not to mention the skipper's image! ), and it won't necessarily drop by itself when you uncleat the halyard, thus requiring a (possibly scary/dangerous) trip to the bow to pull it down, if you don't have a downhaul that can be worked from the cockpit ...