If we were to open up the sail material all options what would happen

N/A's
We will see a mix of new sails carbon and dacron in the top ten finishing boats will the main sail material make the difference NO
The rest of the fleet will be sailing with an older inventory that plus luck and skill sets will determine were they finish
Conclusion it doesn't matter what the material is

local one design
Those who choose to sail with there number one set of sails will probably finish higher than those sailing with their set of second level sails (Bill I've sailed with you so I know that you save the good stuff for key events)
Conclusion If you sail with the good stuff and you get luckly you will finish higher than sailing with the old stuff

So a dacron sail will age by stretching getting fuller and fuller with time thus you don't go up hill as fast so over 3-5 years based on the amount of sailing you do it goes from a race sail a club sail to the crusing sail ( I'm on race main number 4 over 15 years) A carbon main will not stretch out will hold its shape until the material fails probably due to flogging the sail going from a race main to the dumpster.

The carbon main will be lighter by about 50 % which is good in a PHRF fleet In looking at the Tuesday night fleet in Barrington the Carbon mains on typical 30-35 footers are lasting 5 plus years assuming they are well maintained which is longer than I can get out of Dacron

Draw backs to Carbon are
up front cost
Care and feeding to max the life you will need to roll the sail making sure that the crew doesn't crease it or step on it

I would like to suggust that we consider opening up the main material in the following fashion

local one design for the 2011 season
North Americans for the 2012 event

This will allow people to evaluate options get pricing and save up for the sail of there choice
Lets remember that the J30 Class is sailed by a bunch of people who love racing but are not the Ken Reads of the world So its going to be who makes the least mistakes not the sail material that makes the real difference in a race




Charlie Stoddard
Falcon #229