I'm with Chris.
I don't think a double standard will help our class at all.
A lot of us like to sail in distance and one-design events. A double standard would make us feel like we have to have two sets of sails for the different events. Then you've just doubled my cost in sails.
If it's open for one it should be open for all in my opinion.
Now as for opening up the sails. Unless you are personally willing to come and measure all the sails for distance and National events then I don't think you need to push for opening up the sail plan. I tried to get sails measured for our F18's here at Carlyle. Nobody was interested in taking the time away from the beer truck to measure sails. We don't have the commitment or knowledge in the fleet. Ok so a few people do have the knowledge but they would rather drink beer. Measuring sails is a bit of a pain and if you've never done it then don't say it isn't. It takes time to get it right. Sailmakers make mistakes and then they have to be fixed before the regatta. It's a big pain. We use to do it in the P19's so I have some experience here.
So let's not jump the gun here. Of course anyone is able to buy a set of sails from anyone they want and race open class. I think Mark Smith did this. I haven't heard that his new set is any faster than the stock EP's. The only place that we still sail one-design is at Nationals and Tybee that I know of.
I don't like the idea of an arms race. I don't have a problem with an announced plan for EP to update his sails on a 3 year program of some kind. It would be good for EP and get the sailors an updated sail plan. Of course, EP would have to be willing to work on the cut which I'm sure wouldn't be a problem.
I don't want to show up at a Nationals to find out that there is a new cut someone is "trying out". That would piss me off. I'd probably dump the boat if that crap started happening. Nothing pisses me off more than to work all year to be ready for a Nationals only to find out that you have brought a knife to a gun fight.
Mike, that's not quite a fair statement about "rather drink beer". I was there and after I walked the two guys (who had never measured a sail) through measuring a set of sails, they realized they didn't have the resources needed to measure every boat there. It's a very time consuming labor intensive process that is regularly underestimated and you can't expect someone to start measuring at a 40 or 50 boat event without significant planning, prior training, space allocation, and tools (including a computer).
Measuring sails (and I mean REALLY measuring them like you have to do with F18 - not just laying them over a template) is a very time consuming process. With some light assistance, it takes me about an hour to do an F18 main, jib, and spinnaker (I could probably work it down to 30 minutes with some practice and a trained assistant...I could probably get it under 20 minutes per set with some jigs and fixtures and several spare hands). Multiply that by 50 boats and you're talking about quite an undertaking.