I've read all of this, and it is starting to seem like we want this brand new golden sail that is years ahead of its time. Here are my simple thoughts.

1) The 20 is fast as ****.. even with current sails.

2) We could use a little updating; nothing wrong with that. But I don't think we need a mass-scale reconstruction of sails.

3) The most current F18 sails are the most modern and competitive catamaran sails around. So what's wrong with taking what is known about these sails, and converting it to the 20? Why do we need all this R&D? If you ask me, all the R&D is already there; now take that knowledge and make the sail fit the 20.

4) Other than using the '09 Tybee example, do we really want a spin that is flatter that makes us sail closer to the wind to maintain the same speed as the current ones which let us keep that speed but sail further off the wind? It seems to me that if the wind direction had been a little more in our favor we would be happy to keep the spins we have now because we could sail deeper downwind at the same speed as the F18's who would have had to sail closer to the wind.

Honestly, how much faster is a new sail plan really going to make this boat? I'm looking for legit reasons here: It will increase speed by X amount; it will allow us to sail X degrees closer to the wind, etc,...

In other words: whats the goal here? My topic of study centers around making and defeating arguments, and so far I haven't heard much argument for new sails other than "we want new sails because ours are old," or "we want new sails for better performance." But what I'm fishing for is a decent understanding of how new sails will increase performance.

BTW: I'm all for a new sail plan. But the reason there is so much debate here is because there are hardly any solid objective reasons for new sails. What makes me most proud about this topic is that there are people like Todd, Tad, and Sam who are extremely dedicated to this boat and doing everything in their power to keep it alive and make it as competitive as technology will allow. Keep it up.