Mary,
The difference between dispensated and grandfathered is still a little fuzzy,
Actually they are the same thing only grandfathering can be done at a lower level in the authority structure and can be done by the local class head alone. Full dispensation can only be done by the whole class authority. But achieving either one pretty leads to the same end result.
In fact, one of the factors that helped Dave to win the Nationals was that his team had much faster spinnaker sets and take-downs as the regatta wore on, because female crews on other boats were getting too tired from the raising, snuffing process.
I'm sure Kirt Simmons and Geert Ruesink are now looking at each other to determine who was "the female" on board during that very race. !
And then we are still left to determine who was "the male" on the all-girls Alter cup qualifying team !
As they beat several all guys teams.
But seriously, we are not here to ban anybody. For serious reasons we can't remove the mid-girth rule, we'd be killed overnight in the international scene. But I don't suspect that the Florida F16 sailors will ban Rick from entering with his hooters. Eventually it is Jennifers call, and the individual RC's will determine how to best rate Rick in this attire.
As I have said before, I think a Hooter-type, furling headsail will attract more old folks and women and kids to the class.
This may be, but not having the girth rule as good as finishes us off in Europe, South Africa and Asia (over 60 % of the class). I'm quite sure that not many old, female or kiddies teams will join a dead class. We can go over this again and again , as we have done a few times in the past but the situation has not changed and so the end result will remain the same.
I say; bring your boat and race us, we will welcome you ! But you can't use the F16 handicap ratings or campaign for any international prices as long as you don't fully comply with the F16 class rules. There is nothing we can do to change that.
Now, Wouter, you said the Hooter-type sail is supposedly faster than the spinnaker. What are you basing that on?
From
http://www.catsailor.com/bestof_articles/Hooter.htmlThe Hooter : a Hot, New Sail with all the trimmings by Rick White,
And I quote :
... The sail is designed to not only sail off the wind (reaches and downwind), but to actually go to weather in lighter winds of 10 mph or under. ... Right off the start in lighter winds you simply furl the jib, unfurl the Hooter and hoot off away from the stock boats. After rounding the weather mark and onto a reach, simply ease the sheets and unfurl the jib. You can now use the double-slot effect to gain more power and speed. After rounding the reaching mark and heading downwind you will find that the Hooter is as fast and [color:"red"] often faster than the standard spinnaker [/color] . ...
In the meantime, maybe you need a rule that says dispensated boats using reachers cannot use them upwind.
Officially the F16 class rules don't even know what a reacher is (or a hooter). It only specifies a shape requirement for a downwind sail that for some reason can not be satisfied by a reacher/hooter. We must draw the line somewhere.
The other part of the argument revolved around furling headsails. Can someody explain to me why a spinnaker can not be cut flat and be furled just like a reacher ? Obviously the F16 class rules don't ban wires in the luff of a spinnaker or any other item that explictly forbids furling. So the issue at hand is not really wether you may furl it or not.
It also isn't wether the class rules ban a reacher/hooter type sail either. The rules don't say anything about that. They only rule on a maximum upwind sailarea and consider everything that is not a mainsail or gennaker to be a jib. So in effect the see reachers/hooters just as jibs. If you lower you mainsail area and remove the jib I'm sure the hooter headsail (reacher) will be ruled F16 class legal. So that isn't the issue either.
So this is not really about the F16 rules banning reachers or hooter. Because they simply don't.
I think the true issue here is that a under the current rule set a reacher sail set (hooter + main etc) can not be made to work well enough to beat gennaker fitted F16's. The same can be said of many other possible design features. For example foamless hulls (to much overall weight) or unstayed masts (to inefficient compared to rotating masts). None of these are banned.
Of course, that would also probably require a corresponding rule that prevents people from using their spinnakers above a certain point of sail, even if the sail is cut flat enough to do so. It would not be fair unless all the boats are using their big headsails only on the same parts of the race course.
But we aren't banning anybody from setting their spis upwind now.
Basically, we never looked at the reacher/hooter sails when we drafted the rules. We never included the mid girth rule to explicetly ban them. We simply forced a shape parameter for the gennaker because the class would not be able to growth and be succesful without it. In this respect it is the same as the 2.50 mtr width limit. And we are not going to have a rule that says that 3.0 mtr wide F16-like boats can race as F16's when they only have one person on the trapeze either.
So I guess the best way to adres this point is to design a spi sail that satisfies the mid girth rule and that can be furled. I don't see a reason why this can not be done.
Beyond that any sail that is cut very flat, has less the 75 % mid girth and it set ahead of the mast is regarded to be a jib sail. Something that they arguably are, even if they are identified by a new name like a reacher/hooter/screacher or Genua. They are all jibs, of different sailcut I admit, but they are jibs nevertheless.
Regards,
Wouter
