Bill and Wouter, theory is a wonderful thing and I am sure that everyone who has designed a beach cat since 1967 with the aim of buildng a boat that is as quick as a Tornado has done plenty of theory. Then as they realise that they are not in the same ballpark they have to rethink it all. I am going off a gut feeling and many hours experience on a Tornado and the 5.7 Taipan and I am bloody confident that my widened 5.7 will be a very quick boat, at least as quick as a T and the potential to beat it substantially in all conds and points of sail. Only time will tell but the failings of some of these newcomers (Eagle and M20) can be put down to a few points: M20 has no Jib, might be fine on a W/L course race but it suffers badly elsewhere. Eagle 20: This boat has a lot of potential but there are too many variables at this stage. The rig is in early stages of dev and the platform is unproven. I am going to start with what is essentially a Tornado rig and use that as my baseline. you should never discount the amount of development that has gone into the modern Tornado rig.