In response to Steve Kwicksilver
"Pick a PN number that is a little ambitious for a 14ft boat, but not so wild that you have to modify the hell out of a boat, or overdesign the rig to be competitive. Base it on the average of the 14ft designs that you have sailing currently with added spinnaker / hooter. Good idea to base it on that H14 that is on steroids."


It is a good idea except you can't calculate a Portsmouth # to that level of detail. A Portsmouth corrector can tell you the effect on a boats Portsmouth # of putting a spin on or widening the beam. There is no way of calculating what you have to do to a Mystere 4.3 to make it equal to Bob's H14, for example. I don't know of a way to independently calculate the Portsmouth # of a totally new boat.

The texel system claims to be able to do that. BUT, it has known problems with light boats and it doesn't rate a hooter equal to a spin. There are probably other problems that I don't know about.

IF EVERYBODY AGREES THAT:

1) all of us are sailing light boats so the problem will be EQUAL FOR ALL OF US

2) A hooter and a spin are equal on a sq foot basis (i,e, a 100 sq ft Spin is the equal of a 100 sq ft hooter)

3) Foils (dagger boards and rudders) are NOT taken into account

4) a maximum mast height and all masts are equal

5) Plus some other things I have not thought of


You could generate a CRUDE table that would give you max upwind and downwind sail area for a given length, width and beam.

For example, you would round your length and beam up to the nearest 3 in, round your boat weight up to the nearest 10 lbs, find these values in the table and read off your max upwind and downwind sail area.

You would probably find a Wave would be allowed to run a spin hanging from a helium balloon in addition to a hooter.and still be below max sail area

Any better ideas and who wants to generate the table? I will help but right now I am real busy.