North Sails favors a loose footed arrangement for most of our Cruising customers.
The loose foot allows the sailor to adjust the shape of the lower 20% of the mainsail by easing the outhaul to add depth to the sail or pulling the outhaul very hard to flatten out the lower section of the sail.

The alternative to a loose foot arrangement is to equip the sail with slides along the foot, which hold the fabric on the boom. The slides don't add to the strength or durability of the sail. On the contrary, the slide attachment points tend to add to the cost of maintaining the sail. The sail fabric is more highly loaded in the area of each attachment and as such the fabric degrades with use and UV exposure, the sail is more likely to rip at any attachment point that is slightly more loaded than it was designed for.

There are some practical advantages to a loose foot. During installation of the sail, the sail battens can be loaded on the dock, the sail flaked and tied and then loaded directly onto the top of the boom. This works especially well if you have lazy jacks. When it is time to remove the sail, it can be flaked on the boom, bundled with sail ties that are run around the sail but over the boom and then lifted off. Reefing lines can be dead-ended on the boom without concern for ripping a slide off the foot of the sail if the line is tied in the wrong place. In short, with modern, low stretch sail fabrics, slides or other attachment points along the boom do not offer any advantages.

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