Hearty congrats to Matt & Ben for winning the SailJuice Warm Up.

Boat looks fantastic, but are Tape Drive jibs class legal ..... ?

Dont get me wrong, not trying to be nasty about it, but just trying to understand whether to buy a dacron or fancy jib for the 2011 season and be able to use it at the Champs.

Andy Gray raised this in October have the RYA not got their ducks in row yet? OR have the membership simply not been told?

Hi All,

Aeroweb sails are not legal, and should not have been signed as measured, if they have been. If they have not been measured the boat's certificate is invalid, with the consequences that follow from that.

The matter is under discussion between the MROA and the RYA and we plan to have a resolution that we can publish imminently.

Patience is a virtue, Cassandra.

Cassandra,sorry, I can't lay claim to raising any point on sail construction for the Merlin class nor should I as I'm not in any way technical or a class member! Thanks for the mention anyway. By the way the Aerostrip sails do look rather spiffing. Jim and Taxi made me a super Technora sail for my Solo last year that was well quick!

Can someone explain which bit of which rule makes such a sail illegal?
Thanks.

The tapes contravene the secondary reinforcement rules both in their distribution and composition.

GGGGG

So a tape drive main would be equally illegal, but a jib built from 'normal' laminates is OK?
You could say that some stress mapped sails are just a cloth where the fibres have been laid at particular angles and are part of the 'cloth' like the fibres in our normal mainsail cloth.

may I refer the hon gentleman to the reply I gave earler....

So why are they racing with an illegal sail ?

As this is a development class it seems reasonable to experiment with these sails to me, they look great, don't affect performance and should last longer,is it not true that many sails already have this secondary reinforcement? Just seems a bit petty to me when Matt and Ben have worked very hard for this title, well deserved, Welldone!!!!!

Rules is rules!

If "rules is rules" shouldn't everyone with a jib be disqualified as they all have a secondary reinforcement.

Then who if anyone measured the sail? Was it once illegal by construction, twice unmeasured?

Dont the jib rules allow secondary reinforcement as long as it can be folded?

Would any of those criticising have put a protest in??

Certainly rules are rules it is cheating not to comply.

As I understand, speeds had asked for clarification for this development, I think the criticism is unnessesary as all other sailmakers jibs have a secondary reinforcement, clarification, not rule breaking, let's stop this petty argument shall we?

According to the rules as currently written the sails are illegal. There is no clearer decision..

The fact is that none of their competitiors were sufficiantly aggrieved to put a protest in, therefore whinging about it on here will acheive nothing.

> protest

In a handicap race other competitors would not have the knowledge to protest. However if the sailors declared to the RC before the event that their boat had a non-class compliant sail and asked the RC to allocate a trial PY number there could be no possible complaint, and I doubt most RCs would allocate a different number for such a small change. However if a crew had deliberately sailed with a non-class rule compliant boat without informing the RC then some of the more unpleasant parts of the rule book seem feasible.

To be fair, i don't believe these sails have helped Matt and Ben go any faster than they already did, they are the correct sizes and shapes as speeds are always good with dimensions, rules may be rules but i'd suggest its a bit sad to try and take away from a team that are representing their class at these winter events, trying to put it forward as a competitive class that's pushing boundaries? Especially as they're in no way performance inhancing!
 Is it not good that not only he's sailing a stunning looking boat that's catching peoples eye, but also there are some damn good sailors in it? Its your class, just clarify this rule, if need be clarify it quietly, to me though i find it very impressive that the merlins have won the award for the second year its exsited, Well Done!

JimC:- There were plenty of other Merlins there at all 4 events.

Thread closed, i think the origional question has been answered.

Sorry, am I missing something here.
Congrats to Matt & Ben and best wishes for their continued success.
But, were their sails "measured" or "unmeasured"?
If the former presumably they are at fault as I understood that we were all required to compete with "measured sails".
If the latter Matt and Ben were competing in good faith.
Presumably the measurer can justify his authorisation or is at fault and is in need of re-training?