Franck,
As you know I have minimal respect for your position on technical matters, what makes you a dangerous contributor to this class is that you seem to think you have a grasp of these matters...

gelcoat is a deadweight in comparison to paint. Both substances are designed to provide a surface coating for the hulls. Both have essentially the same friction qualities (gelcoat is actually shown to have lower friction than paint, so therefore is advantaged). The function qualities are essentially equal. Thats why there is no advantage in paint, and yes, its cheaper for us to build in this method. We have decided to use the weight saved by using paint to built a stiffer and stronger boat. This means that it will last longer and that is what we as customers should all desire!!! A quality product that will stand the test of time. If you dont want class members to be able to buy a quality, long lasting boat then I suggest that you review your participation in this class.

As for sail cloth:- Show me someone with a set of 1.5mil sails that is unhappy with the longevity??? how about we ask the hardest man I know on sails and equipment, a man with a reputation for breaking the toughest built boats and sails, a man who has more miles on beach cats than anyone else I know.... And guess what... he is FRENCH. Yvan Bourgnon. Oh, and he has had a set of 1.5 mil sails for years and they are still going strong.

After such hard usage its performing just fine. So why change it?

1.5 mil sail cloth is not a new thing in the class, it has been used from the very first day of introducing a cloth list for this class, and sails have been made from it for many years.

If its not broken, why change it??

1.5mil cloth is cheaper than 3.0mil cloth, by around 10% so why is the tech committe trying to force more expensive cloth on us customers?