The play for the patent is in my opinion one reason why it may not be called "broad seaming". Because if it is identified as such then no patent could have been awarded and everybody could have made 3D sails. But that is a different topic.
Actually its very much the topic: If the matter has been to court and each party was clearly trying to win their case (spending a LOT of money to do so) and it as found in that court of law that there is a difference in the way a 3DL sail is made, hence granting patent status. That should be proof enough for Wouter? Or was the Judge mislead??
More important is that 20% of next to nothing is still next to nothing.
A normal F16 radial mainsail, excluding battens, weights something like 3.5 to 4 kg. 20% of that is onlu 0.7 to 0.8 kg (= also less then 2 pounds). If that amount of weight savings puts you below minimum weight then you have to put it back on your boat again as lead.
Rather have it as lead on the boat, than weight aloft. Furthermore, as a percentage of total boat weight 0.8kg in a 107kg boat is a lot more than 5kg in a 5500kg boat.
20% weight savings may add up to many kilograms on large yachts, that do carry many sets of sails, but on a F16 where only a single suit of sails is allowed, it is almost negligiable.
having sails below deck on a yacht is not really an issue with regards to the weight carried. In race yachts we try to add weight in the right areas and if the max design displacement is a class/formula rule then we sometimes add water to the bilge in order to increase the sailing displacement. Sounds a bit crazy but the science is sound.
Wouter, you must have missed my post above where I asked if you would accept North Sails version of Broadseaming in relation to 3DL?
