Rather than build it from scratch, might he (Ben Hall, Hall Spars) offer a kit, where he builds the ribs, spars, etc. and the buyer puts it all together? At a price somewhere between his actaul cost and a fully built wing, that still might be cheaper than the $5,000 mast and sail combo?

How about if he races it, but throws out his scores? Then the others won't fear it but welcome the chance to see just how well it performs up against the best traditional rigs, and see if it might improve cat sailing? In the end, he might get the rule changed and sell a whole lot of kits, and have the entire fleet ready to race with wings next year. OR, perhaps the class could offer two sub-classes, traditional rig or wing rig. Oh, and another sub-class with foils! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />