Thom,



There will be no minimum sail area that will be part of the tuning process for each team. As you know lighter teams don't need the same sail that heavier teams do and so on.



Personally, SA is a topic that is so hotly debated I think that the series will wait a few months after the announcement to set the max. If you look at it this way: Max spar is 40' so the max main sail area you could possibly build is 400 sq ft (note thats max just mathimatically and not practically). Probably the largest practical main is in the 340-355 sq ft range. So that leaves a spin sa of 845 sq ft. ( nothing that I would care to sail behind).



Since the series is caping the number of sails you can sail in a season to 9 total (registered, measured, marked and electronically tracked). Here is where it gets nuts. DO you build 2 mains and seven spins or 1/8,3/6, 4/5, 7/2 ?????? What do you do? Remember that this is a pro series and sail changes are expected -- hell even encouraged as it raises the level of interest. We as cat sailors are not accustomed to sail strategy but every monohull guy out there is an the series must cater to that demographic as well. I think that a good sailmaker and team can intelligently talk about weight, sa, mast and come up with 2 or 3 combinations that work for all the teams needs. But, max main plus max spin can not exceed max sa. in other words don't bring a 200 sq ft main and 1000 sq ft spin and expect to register a 300 sq ft. main also. Someone is going to scream about that but common sense is that no one is going to fly that combo together and the series is going to rely on a certain amount of self policing. To allow something like that in the tempt area is not good officiating.



Every attempt is being made to reduce costs and still provide an exciting formula racing format. Several builders want the series to run one design. Thats great for certain things but for all the reasons that have been previously posted the series will be formula and that is set in stone.



Personally, I prefer a boat that is solid and tested versus flimsy and unknown but, a 17 months is a long test period for any builder to perfect thier product. On that comment Bill will agree.



Thanks

Steve