I understand the gist of your post but the conflict you allege with the manufacturers makes no sense. To my knowledge, none of those on the technical committee are sail cloth manufacturers, more they buy the raw product and manufacture sails from them. To me, it would be in all their interests to look at materials and techniques which either lower the cost, increase the durability of sails or both.

As for the permitted materials list, I'm fine with it and do think it should err on the side of permission unless there is a clear and over riding case for no. Things like short supply, prohibitive cost and/or sort lifespan should all be considered. One such example would be if a manufacturer developed a sail that blew the competition out of the water however cost a bomb and lasted just more than 1 regatta.

Michael