A couple of years ago I sewed in a plastic zipper on to one of my Ulua sails. Due to the sail's geometry, conventional reefing systems don't work very well. The zipper removed at least 25% of the area and even better, it was the upper section. The problem I had was with my amateur sailmaking skills which resulted in a prominent ridge across the sail when the removable section was in place. It didn't seem to hurt performance noticeably but it was ugly. A pro sailmaker would get the tension between the fabric and zipper right and it would look much better.
But as is, the smaller sail works really well, can handle a lot of wind, and looks great too.
Great idea. What percentage of the sail area comes out? 20 percent or so?
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