I'm happy to see the discussion develop and I'm sure that both Micheal and Seeker are passionate about their case without being personal although the wording used seems to fire up. Please guys, don't introduce more fire in the wording then is already present.



On the topic and without stating my own opinion.



Micheal the taller the mast the less sail area is allow in the mainsail. Example a 9 mtr. mast with a mainsail of 8,5 mtr. luff length would only be allowed some 14,32 sq. mtr. of mainsail area this in relation to 14,85 sq. mtr. on a 8,5 mtr. tall mast like the Taipan 4.9 has. Surely the point in the A-cat class is that the mainsail area of an A-cat stays the same independent of the length of the mast. Clearly the same area on a taller mast is better. But how about the current rule that gives sailors a proportionate reduction in area when they opt for more luff length ? The same applies to the jibs. Under current F16 rules getting a taller mast is not likely to increase sailpower, although it will increase heeling moment. This point may he caused all builder to limit themselfs to 8,5 mtr. anyway.



Seeker, With respect to minimum weight. Either 5 kg's is singnificant or it isn't. In the first case ; making sure that the current boats are competitive is of major importance to strenghen the class before F18 dominates all. Also especially to preserve the home build option, I would like to add.



Yes, timber boats can be lighter but with the added spi gear 105 kg's overall weight is hard enough to get down too.



In the second case it shouldn't make any difference wether the minimum is 100 or 105 as the performance isn't impacted much by this. it does however have the potential to lower costs by much. The weight increase gave a 20 seconds performance loss in theory, something that can easily be gained back by far more cost effective means like increasing jib sailarea. The last would keep up performance while keeping affordable boats. At least that is what some are argueing.



Again, I don't state personal opinions here I just want to introduce two points that are of interest and might bring about concensus in the class concerning the rules.



Please keep discussing, it is very entlighting, even to me and I came prepared. I also did not fully realized the emotion that some of these points are linked to.



Wouter