Yeah, I recognize that a nice position to be in, is to be more than happy to be downstream of racers who have little use for last years sail. But if they are only going to be compatible with new masts, then the idea of getting a fun(non racing) solo boat for relatively cheap ($3 to 4 K?), might not be so practical. So how would a good Acat sailmaker build a sail for a 10 year old mast that I may or may not be able to identify. Would it help if he had the mast? Are there ways to quantify mast bend that I could do? Could a one year old main be affordably recut for an older mast?. How much for a 2 year old mast that a sail could be found or built to match ( I think I'm venturing beyond my budget).
What I'm hoping to do is determine whether I can by a cheap boat, sail it for a season or two without much further investment, and then be able to find a newer (new?) sail that will work well with the existing mast. Am I hoping for too much with too little financial committment? It just seems that it's possible to get 85 to 90 percent of the performance of a new A, for about a third of the cost of a new one, because this is almost exlusively a race boat, and in a class that is developing steadily.
Opinions?

Dave