I based my loose maths on a simple thing........ observations of the sail numbers I see club racing on a regular basis

I haven't seen a boat number below 1000 since the Easter Regatta @ Lake Bolac last year, on that occasion it was sail number 99
(there's a photo in another thread of it)
If we used number 99 as the starting number then the percentages would have been on 20 boats over 1700.....

So I based my maths on numbers from around the 1000 mark to the current numbers of ~1800, making it ~700 boats, I rounded it down to ~600 as that worked better with the 1800 number and because I couldn't be stuffed dragging out the calculator it was close enough at a 1/3rd of the total build numbers.....

Even if we agreed that there were only 100 active boats and I take the proven number of ~20 at a tittle we are still only dealing with 20% that would under the pressure of competition have to at a sooner than later stage make the move to the square-top.

so we are making a major decision of a sail change and possible mast change for ~20% of a fleet number if we run with the 100 active sailors number.....
The reality is we don't know just how many there are, there is 4 older mozzies at my club that sail regularily, I pass 2 mozzies on a regular basis that are parked under the trees but every now and then one of them has moved, I see one more at a yacht club that hasn't moved for a couple of years but is still in good sailable nick..... all these mozzies are below the sail number of Twice Shy which is 1182

the only "modern" mozzie I see is 1740..... its in my shed undergoing a rebuild but will be out next season.


Until we actually research the active numbers we don't know what the exact percentage is.



For me its a change that seems for the minority at the moment and not really doing any favors for the majority........











With the discussion so far we have found some issues that we have managed to largely overcome on "paper", namely the mast stiffness issue, we may adopt a new mast specifically for the square-top or alternatively strengthen the existing mast size to cope..... both means have benefits over the current mast & both add an additional cost to existing boats.....

The sail itself is still unproven in my mind and until someone actualy parts with the hard earned dollars it will most likely remain untested and subsequently unproven......


however........ to answer your question directly........


yes its an option we definitely need to explore for the long term lifespan of the class


I still have my hand up for the testing process and I fully belive several sailors from differing orientations of the sport should be part of the overall testing of a square-top.....
It should be done at club level by the occasional weekender sailor as well as the classes top guns and the boats should equally include sloops / cats / spins on both the MK1 & MK2 along with the older girls (+65's) in both formats for a true and fair comparison for ALL mozzie sailors, not just the cashed up ones or class elite.

Once we have an idea of the numbers and the data to correspond, then and only then can we make an informed decision about the classes future.