The most important thing is to have a sail and mast that make a good combo.

Most differences between masts, I'm told, can be taken out of the equation by measuring your mast bend characteristics and order a mainsail to fit your mast.

Ordering custom sails for a given mast flexing is standard stuff with many sailmakers. The testing itself takes two saw horse a bucket able to hold 20 litres of water and about 2-3 hours of your time.

Also I would like to add that an oddset need not be the same over the full length of the mast. Meaning inconsistancies can wave over the full length of the mast and average themselfs out a bit as a result.

I personnally think it to be cheaper if the class collects the batch of produced mast and puts in a day of measuring each mast and marking each mast with the basic characteristic. The sailors can then request their perferred mast section and only pay for one mast. This is always inmensely cheaper than everybody getting carbon and due to the normal distribuation of crew weigths and sailing style all masts will be sold. Remember that the off sets of the mast themselfs , as a result of a natural proces, has a normal distribution as well. I think people familiar with Random variables ar familiar with the term "normal distribution"

At least it is this approach that I think I will propose in my class when the differences between mast proof to be to great to be acceptable. We are already sharing mast stocks between builders.

I think it would be a small feature for either the Tornado class or the marstrom yard to perform this trick as well.

Would leave everybody happy and keep cost down. That is unless other reason lead to the decision to go for carbon.

Wouter