Darryl- thanks for the post. I'll pick up a copy of that book and do some more reading. I would really like to see the F14 class be the cheapest way to get in some real great racing. As you've mentioned, it's the the planning and designing stages that put most people off. I'd like to get all the planning and designing done and make the results free to everyone- to make the class that much more attractive. Take the sails for instance: if I came up with a set of sails that performed well enough to race with, I could make all the measurements public, and provide plans for the sails, for the cost of printing and shipping. Basically- I want to take all the guesswork out of this sort of thing.

The Paper Tiger class is a popular class on boats that are only marginal performers by todays standards. I want to design a modern "Paper Tiger". A better compromise between performance, cost and "easy-construction". I'm not out to make the fastest boat in the fleet, just the best value in Fun-per-Dollar terms.