Because the Mirror has side stays some of the lug advantages are negated. Particularly the gentle gybes and the ability to depower the sail at more angles of sailing. You could use a standing lug but it is such a close relative of the gunter lug you already have that there is not a lot of difference. There is probably not enough boat length behind the mast to sheet to sheet a boomless mainsail to go with a boomless standing lug along with the current jib. And it won’t make a lot of difference in rigging time.

The advantages of fast rigging, the gentler gybe, and a wider range of downwind depowering work better with a freestanding mast. Not to mention the fun of learning to sail by the lee – we are trained to be scared of “by the lee” when most performance sailors on unstayed rig boats accept it as normal and spend a lot of time doing it. Imagine how it changes our feeling about gybing if we understand the boat dynamics on that point of sail so well that it is routine. If understood gybing from by the lee means the mainsail will be completely depowered and mostly flapping on the new side. No bang against the sidestays or any sort of drama.

Reefing is also easier to arrange with the other types of lug because they resolve the problems with the gunter mainsail halyard not controlling the angle of the yard once the halyard is loosened. Yes, a traveller can be fitted to the yard but they are seldom long enough to allow the deep reefs for more adventurous sailing. With the other lugs the angle of the yard doesn’t change much – single halyard, no traveller and so much simpler.

Redesigning rigs is a part of what our sailmaking business Really Simple Sails (reallysimplesails.com) does. We have drawn up balance lugs for Thistles in the USA and GP14s and Heron dinghies in Australia. The owners love the simplicity. We provide all the sparring specifications in both wood and aluminium or carbon.

At Really Simple Sails we don’t like taking a boat out of its class, but for a barn find boat with no rig it is the fraction of the cost of a stayed bermudan rig because of the tiny quantity of fittings required for a balance, standing or misainier lug.