Hi Mike,

I personally prefer a black cape and ftat-brimmed hat!  All that furry stuff gets caught in the bearings, and that’s not safe.

Regarding the rules, we certainly got the battens wrong – and I expect we’ll get a few more things wrong, but it isn’t until an event that the rules can be put to the test.  Making a mistake is all part of the process of learning – what we should not allow is for the same mistake to be made twice.  The Parliamentarians have made a career out of rule making and they still haven’t got it right.  So do we really want to send all our time making, breaking and bending rules, and hearing protests? I think not.  That will drive people away from the sport.

Our challenge, through great debate like this, is too determine what people really want.  As you know Mike, we all sat in a room and we could not get agreement on what the rule meant or what we wanted it to say – so we made a compromise.  Now we have our chance to get that one right.

For my 10 cents worth, standard battens have always been my personal choice.  Yes, there are faster sailors than me that use shaved battens.  Yes, shaved battens can be better in light winds, but it is like a car with a peaky torque curve, they only work in certain situations.  But I just love it when people tinker and make their karts slower, while kidding themselves that they have made an improvement.  In light winds on Thursday I sailed two karts, with and without standard battens, with my rival in the other kart.  Standard Battens rule in my opinion!

But without tinkering and innovation we may not have had CRBs, mast cranes, batten tensioners, modified downhauls, deuces, Pods……But for events we can’t have a free-for-all either.

So how we create that balance is the real challenge!  If we only sailed in stronger winds, the effect of the battens would be negligible – but we’d sail less often.  Bearings, weight, battens and technique make a huge difference in light winds.

So to everyone reading this, make your views known to you country representative so we can develop an international consensus, and use this as a forum to discuss your ideas.

Mike, many of us know how you feel, and you are not alone – thanks for the input!

Cheers

Grant2