49er sails

the sailmakers do not want to put a bigger roach on the main, but if the carbon mast means that lighter teams are quicker then they will counteract that by increasing the main. If a bigger main isnt needed then they may well use change the luff curve to match the carbon rig. If they change the mast then it will cost £4000 so you have one spare or £6000 if they change the main aswell so you have a racing and training main.

Also the new carbon mast will be in 3 sections making it cheaper to replace if not repairable and you can send one by a courier. May be bother most people but if it means that you can get a complete new mast the following day without having to drive up to newcastle and back then its definatly a positive.

The B14 example is relevant to the 49er fleet.   The 49ers may have little choice about moving to carbon masts.  The question they face is do they radically change the sail plan as well ?  If they kept the sail plan pretty similar, as did the B14s, the older, non carbon rig boats would still be reasonably competitive and well priced for new, less funded teams..

Boatshed is right, the B14 rig is carbon from CST.  Very strong (ie no breakages since the mast collar upgrade, unlike the ally rig of which one would go at each open). 

The well sailed ally rig boats do stay on the pace, this is achieved because the rig is not too much lighter and the bend characteristics are similar.  General thoughts are that the carbon rigged boats are quicker downwind, and in chop. 

The fleet was not obsoleted by the carbon stick, and at the last event (Rutland) the carbon boats were outnumbering the ally boats.  Numbers are up in the fleet.  The 49ers could do it as generally they are sailed by well funded teams (ie a competitive one isn't cheap), provided the carbon stick was similar in weight and bend characteristics to the ally stick. 

I think the idea is to just catch up on the development abit not to keep up with development classes.

it is the ultimate twin wiring skiff because there is no other twin wiring skiff which can keep up over all the conditions. 14s are quicker downwind when it gets over 18knots and in chop because we have to stop pushing the boat so hard otherwise we will pitchpole but 14s just push the bow up with the t foil and off they go (a 49er could not realy have a t-foil because the whole boat would have to be changed). But not many twin wiring skiffs if any can keep up with a 49er upwind.

surely though, its pointless trying to stay ahead of 14s, cherubs, 12s etc. These classes are "development" classes, and therefore will always looking to go faster, so the 49er will have to keep updating aswell to stay in the game, effectively making them a development class aswell. After all, why does the 49er have to stay ahead? i think any 49er sailer would agree, that its fast enough already.