RS moving to open development sails?

Originally posted by PaulPoshW What's to stop a sail maker with the fastest design (assuming tolerances are allowed) charging more than the max price? Should the class take off and attract top teams surely they would pay an extra £ or 2 for the sails most likely to win. And why shouldn't a sail maker who has spent time and money to develop that get something in return?

Originally posted by mozzy Is the button to mark that a sail is class legal? Or just that the royalty has been paid? More measuring at events or a hell of a trust that individual sail-makers don't 'sign off' out of spec sails.  It's good to RS trying new things, and this is definitely a new market for them. At the very least it means all the top pro's who are sponsored by various lofts can happily jump in the RS21 too.

I think with laser it's the builder who appoints the sail makers and provides buttons at a price. The sails don't go direct from loft to sailor so there is no incentive for the loft to do anything other than make cheap sails within tolerances. The button means class legal and royalty paid. 

I guess it depends where the price cap is and how tightly controlled the design is. If the cap is too high and there is significant freedom then in reality this isn’t much different to any OD class. If the cap is too low and the design freedom is very limited this will result in the sails being mere commodities with no difference in price or design.

But what is market price? Generally a sail that wins stuff costs more to buy than one that doesn't. Materials and labour costs won't be much different, though.