Thank you, Tony, I just looked at the pictures, and I've got questions about how it works.

• It looks like your fabric catchers are the same height, under half the height of a sail panel on the main and over half the height of a panel on the smaller foresail. What seems "right" for catching the sail without getting in the way?
• They appear to be a touch longer than the boom length, extending both forward and aft. Does either thing cause a problem? Are there any issues with fouling sheetlets?
• Do you have any pictures of how the SB side works? From what I see, the supporting batten doesn't go forward of the masts
• What did you use for a supporting batten in your catcher? Can you tell me what the corresponding length and batten construction on the sail is for reference?
  

Today life told me to do this (old) project, NOW.

Hint 1: My "temporary" sail gatherers included webbing looped under the sails. It was supposed to be temporary, so I used stuff that I discovered was mostly cotton and decided not to use it for my sail boltropes. Good choice--Three and a half years later, it has rotted most of the way through. (Fortunately I caught this before they failed during a test sail!)

Hint 2: An osprey had a meal on top of my yard, leaving blood, fish bits, and other goodies on my sail, which I had to clean off.

I'm digging around and looking at designs and plans; I'll find yours, Ketil; I've already got notes from the one Slieve made for Poppy and the one Arne made for Broremann.

Any other versions that have worked well?

I need sail catchers and a sail cover. I've discovered that my sail bundle with topping lifts does indeed hold standing water in folds in the sail after it rains, and with bird traffic added, stuff grows in there. There are now some spots on my new sails which aren't as white as they used to be, even after a first attempt to scrub them. Sigh.

I plan to sew it with leftover Odyssey III fabric from my sails, and bolt rope webbing to reinforce the edges. I suspect I will put a spreader/batten toward the top to keep it stretched out and help support some more height in the aft portion where the "line" up from the clew area has a low angle.

I'm not sure how i should handle the bottom part of it. I would love to hear comments on how these various options have worked?

• The sides could be connected under the boom, with a couple loops around the boom to keep it in position.
• The sides could connect between the sail and the boom, with slits for the loops that connect the foot of the sail to the boom.
• The sail catcher could be sewn to the foot of the sail, either with or without gaps that would allow water to get through, using the existing webbing loops or a new sewn pocket to hold the sail plus catcher to the boom.
  

My biggest concern is doing what I can to reduce the pooling water as much as I can.

I know several of you have sewn fabric sail catchers. What have you done, and how has it worked?

My plan for the sail cover is to make it somehow mate with the sail catcher. I've got three schemes I'm thinking of here. One is a weighted cover like Arne created for his daysailor. The second is like a commercial stack pack or mack pack on a conventional boom where the two sides zip together over the sail when it is stowed. The third is a conventional sail cover that has twist-lock fasteners underneath. Right now I expect it will be a combination of two of them.