Hi guys thanks for the quick replies. the reason all the major classes have black bands is that they have found that the higher up you push the sail the more power you get thus it would be easier to fly a hull and so on.

In classes such as the 470 etc we have found that even 10mm above black band results in huge gains especially in powering up conditions and downwind.

I'm sure the northland boys dont want to change thier boats with the curved beams so i understand not wanting to change the rule.

I would suggest a definition for the beam from a straight line between beam ends with beam ends on the top of the faired topside line again to stop ugly really high beam mounts, easy enough to put a string line between the highest point on each hull on the beach ???

dont get me wrong i like the beams on the northland boats but do you really want ugly distorted boats or sweet looking rockets that attract top class sailors

We have moved back to NZ and are located in Snells beach just north of auckland and are presently trying to help the local kids get out on the water and have been working on a kitset cat for the juniors to blat around in for a while and this class seems perfect i congratulate graham and billy for taking the initiative and richard for producing a great little design

John