Patent ID: 6953000

Claim:
A sail system comprising a vessel, a mast, a sheet, a sail having a luff edge, a foot edge, a leech edge, a head, a tack, a clew, and means for attaching the head, tack and clew of said sail to a vessel, said sail comprising: A. a maximum foot length no greater than 100% “j”; B. a plurality of sail hanks; C. a diagonal batten oriented at an angle of approximately ninety degrees to the luff of said sail, said batten having a first end contained by a first batten receptacle having forestay connect ability and being attached at or near the luff of said sail and a second end contained by a second batten receptacle attached to said sail at or near the clew of said sail, each such batten receptacle being attached to said sail in the axis of said diagonal batten; D. a batten pocket attached to said sail in the axis of said diagonal batten; E. an approximately elliptical positive leech curve descending from the head of said sail through successive leech limit points to the clew of said sail, each such leech limit point deriving as follows: i. said sail's head-to-clew diagonal being a line from the head to the clew of said sail; ii. said sail's vertical extremities construction line being a vertical line disposed at or forward of said sail's tack and running upwards from the level of said sail's clew to the level of its head; iii. said vertical extremities construction line comprising segments of equal height delimited by horizontal construction lines; iv. each such horizontal construction line running horizontally aft from said vertical extremities construction line to the companion mast of said sail; v. said sail's leech measurement intersections lying at respective intersections between each of said sail's horizontal construction lines and its head-to-clew diagonal; vi. said sail's respective forward girth segments each being equal to the horizontal distance from successive leech measurement intersections to the luff of said sail; vii. from uppermost to lowermost, each of said sail's aft girth segments being approximately equal in length to the following percentage of the length of respective corresponding forward girth segments: 80%, 30%; 20%, 6%, and 2%, said percentages corresponding to a preferred six-segment vertical construction line; viii. each of said sail's leech limit points lying along a corresponding horizontal construction line at a distance aft of the luff of said sail equal to the combined length of corresponding forward and aft girth segments of said sail; F. said sail's leech perimeter beginning at its head and descending sequentially through successive leech limit points to terminate at said sail's clew; whereby a low cost, hoisted, non-overlapping, self-tacking, self-boomed headsail employs predetermined leech parameters to reconcile optimum performance and optimum convenience.