Carl, Mark
To try and answer some of your questions.
The 3D is not being built to any existing Formula rule. The reason being as it is being built for use here and as readily evidenced by the posts in the F20 forum a Euro rule boat will not make on the best seller list in the US and no one has standardized on a formula for a US F20 class.
None of the I20 guys will give up sail area to join a formula. But as evidenced buy the results at Tybee, the NE 6.0 is for all intensive purposes, just as fast over a wide range of conditions. And, as Mark stated, there is only so much sail area a 8-6 beam boat can carry, so the purpose of the boat was to try and maximize performance over the widest range of conditions with the given platform. If some one really wants to show up with 800sf of upwind sail area and kick butt in 2 knots of wind, I say let them, but they better be willing to go out when its blowing 25 too with the same sails.
This boat was origionaly on the drawing board as a super lite 10' beam boat. (heads up with the M20 etc). With the exception of a handfull of faithfull Tornado addicts, who will not change boats anyway, there is not much market for boats that you can not carry on a regular trailer. As for racks, it was tossed around, discussed with a variety of different people and finally rejected. A rack does not change the righting pivot location, and so minimally increases the leverage while increasing the complexity and weight of the boat.
As for platform weight, the first unit is designed and comming in right at 300 lb. It is possible to go lighter, and some trial hulls are being fabricated to look at various combinations of core and reinforcing materials (carbon, kevlar etc). The real limiting factor will be the ability to make a robust platform that does not cost more that what the other production 20 footers are selling for in the US. How many people can afford an M20 anyway? Somewhere in the 300 lb range is a significant improvement on weight over the I20, allows the use of standard materials and will not sacrifice durability adversely.
Matt
