I don't think the factory will dish out any $$ for development of the new sails. I think what Todd says is true - they'll just hand a set of the Performance sails from the EU and tell Skip to make his own copy.
If this ISN'T going to be the case, and there is going to be a documented R&D process involving several sets of different versions of the sails to be produced and feedback documented by the sailors and returned to the loft, then I'm all for THAT solution. If that isn't going to be the case then I'm not so gung-ho about it.
How much "development" do you guys really think is going to happen here? They're going to take the shape parameters from the latest F18 kites and mains, scale them, make an accommodation for the different mast bend characteristics (hopefully) and cut a new sail. There's really not much magic to it unless you guys are expecting something like an Olympic sail development cycle. Sailmaking is down to a pretty fine science for the kind of leap we're talking about. It's going to take one guy an afternoon or two to layout the new main and an afternoon for the kite.
