Sorry Carl, I hadn't seen this post untill you mentionned it in a later post.
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<br>To make things clear, crew weight is the weight of the participants in plain swimwear, and does not include any gear worn.
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<br>I very much like the idea of a sail area to crew weight relation.
<br>Even better and fairer an overall weight to sail area relation.
<br>For this reason it is pointless to set a high minimum weight for either.
<br>We need to ask experienced designers/builders who have experimented with mathematical models giving us a realistic relation between power(sail area) and weight.
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<br>Otherwise we could do it ourselves.
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<br>The relation is probably not linear but will still produce a smooth curve on a graph. We know it must pass through (0,0) ;-) and any curve can be estimated accurately with some polynomial equation.
<br>Before everyone starts jumping at the complexity of this idea, this equation would be to set the sail area to weight scale in incriments of 30(?) pounds such that we could set up 3 or 4 weight:sail area groups. (I am better at doing this than writing about it ;-) )
<br>I'll have a closer look at the data on various boats already entered and maybe I can come up with something in a few days.
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<br>For now my vote is for a crew weight minimum of 300 pounds and since I tend to favor an overall weight to sail area system, a boat weight minimun of 375 pounds for a total minimum of 675#s.
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<br>I want this class to be as exciting to watch as the Aussi 18 foot skiff racing they used to show on Speed Vision .
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<br>light & fast ... more power for the big guys.
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<br>Marc<br><br>