Bill

Yes I agree, I have always used the shared lift idea in my boats, both those I build and when I sailed T's and others, Whether the boards are forward or not, the same efect can be got with what ever size boards/rudders are chosen, its just about the position of CLR against CE of the rig, however with existing classes obviously board position is fixed.

With the boats we build, we go down the raking the mast back route to load up the rudders, and rake back the spinnaker luff, however we do have large rudders, one thing that compromises most boats that now carry spinnakers is that most class rules limit pole length to 80cm beyond the bow, I don't know why they do this, but Formula 16, formula 18, Formula 18Ht, Tornado and Formula 20 all do this, most manufacturer class boats just toe this line as well, hence the reason why poles are generally short on cats compared to skiffs, also skiffs have a neat way of getting around the lee helm problem, they sail them upright upwind and lean them to leeward downwind, the rig, and hull shape then creates a torque screwing the boat upwind which goes some way to balancing the leehelm effect of the kite way out front, cats obviously aim to fly a hull as much as possible so they can't do this.

I think the fact is that we are both singing from the same hymn sheet on what makes boats go well, we just have different ways of achieving this. Funny isn't it when you put time into developing things, even when you are on different continents and in different decades, you still end up in pretty much the same place, I guess now the internet is around it will stop all this repetition of work!!