Wouter, I agree I thimk that this will become self limiting, although it possibly gives a vast range of sail/mast combinations, bearing in mind with the longer mast you can have a longer spinnaker luff length.
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<br>I think you may end up with a bit of an arms race, certainly in the beginning, up untill the point where developement of the boats finds the 'self limit'. the cost of this will be bourne by the folk who end up with obsolete kit.
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<br>Personally I would fix the mast length (8.5m) seems about right, then at least there is only sail developement to pay for, and sails are a consumable item anyway, a boat owner would hope that their mast would last the life of the boat.
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<br>On another issue I have been running some figures through the texel and isaf handicap formulae: to get a 16ft boat weighing 100kgs with a 17sqm kite to rate the same as an f18 you end up with main around 15.5 sqm (with mast) and jib about 3.2sqm.
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<br>Now we sail the stealth with main 13.75 m and jib 4.9 m, not much difference in all up area, but the boat is only 2.29 m wide, increase the beam by 300mm and the righting moment goes up by about 13%, our crew weight is 148kgs (325lbs), I wonder if we may be designing a boat for lightweight crews, just a thought has anybody looked at this?<br><br>