The Solution.

because many of us poor saps vote to keep it that way....  e.g. I'm sure Selden would love to start upselling every vaguely competitive solo sailor with a carbon stick, (just think the sailmakers could get in on it too - special bend curves for the new carbon heavy wind and light wind masts.)  But fortunately the Solo Class knows better than the to chase technology for the sake of it and prevents it from happening.

Now had the Laser done what it should have twenty years ago and gone for a carbon mast and half decent kicker, would we all now not even be talking about ally.

Just going anywhere, de-rigging this solution, it's bad enough with the EPS, but at least it's a two part mast, no wires to have to secure, no full length mast with a trailer support necessary.

Travelling is easier with carbon, storage is easier, gust response is better and made properly carbon is stronger stiffer lighter, no need for stays, all those good things, why would sane people even look at anything else.

Well one reason to put sheeting at the end of the boom, not the middle, is that it reduces bending/breaking loads on the boom so, ultimately un-necessary weight and cost. It also gives more leverage but perhaps you fit your door handles on the hinged edge.       

Conversely, exclusively sheeting from the stern is ergonomically bad, it pulls you backwards and you have to sheet in across your body. Centre-mains side-step this and perhaps make hiking a bit easier, spreading the load.

So the mix of the two has a certain logic to it. In some designs, it is also enough to stop the mainsheet dragging in the water in light-airs, although not the Laser of course.

Alternatively, you could go for the curved centre traveller like the D1 or Finn (!), where the mainsheet does up and down and the traveller does in and out (unless the wind is from behind). I think this approach is generally out-of-fashion for cost, weight and complexity reasons.

The only person I know to come up with a new approach is Dan on the Punk; shame perhaps that it did not make it into the D-Zero. But you could adapt that thinking, lead the sheet all the way from back to front of the boom, down, along the floor and then up into your hand. This would leave lots of room for waving tiller extensions about without hooking the sheet.

But you'd be better off with the standard set-up and a bit of elastic on the bridle.

It wasn't much of a course, we went out in a NNE which failed, dropped to not a lot during the start sequence, then switched to SE and freshened so it was reach fetch, run, reach fetch etc, very boring tedious course, got away 1st, then got slowly overwhelmed by the fast boats, I do so hate that, not much tactical stuff going on other than tide calls, but there were some tricky mark roundings and I learned the meaning of hiking thigh burn.