Based on where we're at with the age of the N20 sail plan:
1) Sail design improvement over what we have for a 2 to 5% (heck, maybe even 7% in some conditions) gain may well be a simple push-button science for sailmakers with the right equipment and experience.
2) Sail design for the last 1 to 2% of the speed potential is an art form and requires an influx of resources on an ever increasing exponential curve.
3) I have this sneaky suspicion that deep down you guys are eaten up with this "must beat the F18" mantra. I believe that there are some incorrect conclusions that are feeding this emotion and I think it's a bit of a short sited view. First; the one time the F18 has shown a strong advantage is last year's Tybee 500 on the several days of tight spinnaker reaching. There's no doubt that the N20 has an achilles heal here with the very full kite and main and the gobs of sail area. However, around the cans, the F18 (the boat) is still not beating the N20 (the boat) in most conditions. Granted, it's been about 1.5 years since I dialed up on a start line against one, but it wasn't that long ago that Nigel on his F18 was following me and my rookie crew around the race course for too many laps on more than one occasion and one event (I used to stink at getting the course number...now I can't count laps damnit).
Let's make sure we all have the right reasons in mind here for this sail change. If you want to do it to beat the F18, you guys can have all of that on your own. Just open up the sail plans and be done with it - it's an exercise that will serve to fracture a class that has survived to this point based on a very different philosophy. If you want the sail change to increase the class's marketability with an outward appearnce of a gently and thoughtfully "refreshed" sail plan that makes the boat a little more manageable on the race course then I'm all with you. Keep in mind that if you make some huge leap, you're obsoleting all legacy boats and sailors who don't have the jack for $3200 worth of new sails. You know that phrase they use in Texas about that famous fort that fell during the Texas Revolution? Well... "Remember the 6.0".
Let's not make this so complicated that we can't figure out which end of the gun the bullet comes out of.
Jake, I agree 100% with you here. This is a one-design class, why are we setting the F-18 as the benchmark?
Let's look at costs:
Of all the top F-18 sailors in the world, which lofts do most get their sails from? Are they the small, local, lofts? Or are they big, well-known (nationally and internationally) lofts with loads of experience and followers? (Think Ullman-Zuccoli, Performance Sails, even E/P)... Do you think those lofts sell sails at a big discount? Absolutely not! Their sails come at a premium....
Let's look at R&D:
Nacra has agreed to let us update the sails over a rollout period. Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel overnight? E/P, just as well as any other loft, knows that needs to be done to update the sail plan-they just need permission from Nacra to do that. We are in the process of getting that 'formal' permission. It has to be a stepped plan though, not an all-at-once kind of event.
Sail design is not what is holding most of us back.
