Macca,

It seems you have learned to argue your case in a more balanced manner.

I guess I will allow myself to be seduced by this new tactic.


With respect to US patent laws. Judges don't award patents, patent agencies do. The judge ruled on the case were the patent agency awarded a patent to North Sails where it had also done to Sobstad earlier for what turned out afterwards to be the same thing. By this example alone, refering to the patent agency for a judgement of "uniqeness" is fallable. Because if they had been dependable in that way then North Sails should never have gotten a patent in the first place. And of course by extension ...

The second argument is that this is all circumstancial. The fact that I wasn't home at the time of some buglary has at most a very weak relation to the likelyhood that I've done some illegal. Patent are also awarded on other ground like a uniqueness in production proces. Example, one can not get a patent on the extruding of aluminium pipe, but one can on say a special new machine to inject the aluminium into the forming die. I have not studied the North Sail patents, but maybe they received the patent on some aspect of the glueing that is vital to the production of these sails instead of the composition of the sails itself.

The third argument is of course that this all doesn't really matter as the shaping of the sail is still being done by giving the panels carefully designed countours which are put back to back and fixated relative to eachother which is known to many people as the procedure of .... Well I think anyone can complete that phrase themselves now.

Of course you can try to find new angles to "proof" the impossible, but it won't change the situation one bit.

3D sails and other similar types like tapedrive from other sailmakers are allowed in the F16 class and are expected to stay that way. With the new 3Dr machine and the fact that many patents expire in the near future the F16 class is perfectly positioned to make full use of these sails.

As such The F16 class will lead the "benchmark" F18 class again.

I see absolutely no gain in removing this promo advantage we'll have with respect to other classes. In fact I say alot of arguments in favour of keeping it.

I write "promo advantage" as a scientist I believe the flying shape of a sail determines the performance and it makes not a dime difference to its shape whether a sail is broadseamed and stitched when folded up or broad seamed and glued on a 3D workbench.





That is a pretty strange argument even from you.

Basically you are now arguing yourself that there is no worthwhile gain to 3D sails. I mean what is 5kg to 5500 kg right ? So we can cross the 20% weight savings from the "advantage" list.





Yes, but reducing the weight of the sails is not linked to a desire to reduce displacement but rather to ease of moving them about; from storage to deck, hoisting them and reducing weight aloft. Everybody knows this.

This was a pretty easy argument to kill, Macca, you really got to do better than that.

Wouter