Do you need a Vang?

[toddedger]

E scows have short travelers and relatively long booms. They use the vang to bend the boom for flattening the sail just like most rigs do with their backstays.

[Dsanduril]

I would argue that Pelagic's setup is a vang (unless of course you go even further back to gaff-rigged vessels):

a rope or tackle extended from the boom of a fore-and-aft mainsail to a deck fitting of a vessel when running, in order to keep the boom from riding up

The modern vang that goes to the mast is convenient in not needing adjustment during a gybe/jibe, but is not the only form of vang in existence.

[roverhi]

Originally Posted by savoir

A vang is permanently attached to the mast just above the collar.

Have been messing around in sailboats for more than a half century. When I started sailing the rigid vangs weren't around. Strangely, we still used vangs. They were tackle attached to the boom and the tack that you'd call soft vang today.

The rigid vangs are great as a set and forget boom control device that will also support the boom. Seems that a bit before the rigid vangs became de riguer somebody invented a high tech device called a topping lift

[mtompson]

And this preventer/vang setup will be helpful during high wind gybes, sharing the shock load with the main sheet, needs to be timed well!