All,
There has been a lot of discussion within the fleets about the possibility of opening up the restriction on Mainsail material. There are an endless number of opinions out there, both from the sailors and the sailmakers. This question came up during the recent Board of Governors meeting and discussion eventually narrowed to an interesting potential comprimise. That would be to control the material by means of limiting the overall weight of the sail. This does not mean the sailcloth weight (oz. per square yard), but total weight of the as-built sail. The arguement is that by doing this, the sailmakers can get creative by using heavier/stronger material in high stress areas and lighter material elswhere. Super exotic (expensive?) materials would probably not be practical to use since they wouldn't contribute enough to the total sail weight to make the minimum. This would theoretically provide for a better value sail (Some more money, but longer lasting) which, of course, would be just another part of the decision process when considering new sails.
Again, this is an opinion request only as I'm required to respond with a representative position from the SNE region in 3 weeks as a "Positive" for the above sail weight option, or "No Change". These are the only questions on the table right now, and will not be considered conclusive either way at this point. Just a more focused discussion.
Feel free to post your thoughts and further discussion here.
Thanks for your input,
Mark
