But it's not carved in stone, Ozzy.

Of course not, it's "carved" on the mast in black tape


Otherwise no one would be adding
roach.

Does "adding roach" affect the I & P measurements?

If you're not sailing one design, you can do as you please to
improve a sailplan to suit.

Within reason, yes. And it generally is a good dea to be
honest with the rating committee.


OzOne wrote:
What are you talking about?

He doesn't know either.

The black band is a rating mark.
It is used in conjunction with the other measurements of yacht and
sailplan to rate the yacht.
Your boat will rate exactly the same with it's bands in their location
no matter what mainsail was fitted and no matter how short your sail
may be on the luff.


Generally, they don't care if you have smaller sails, they
just don't want you to have bigger ones than stated.



I do find it a little odd that IF Benny build the yacht with a short
luffed sail that they would then have a measurement point well above
the 'normal' hoist.


They made it custom, by special request from Bubbles.

The bands also help make sure the forces on the rig are
where the designer intended, like the tension on main leach
could (in theory) pull the mast out of column. Another issue
is the running rigging, I remember a number of cases in
one-design classes where people monkeyed with the black bands.

The case I remember best, it was actually white bands on
black anodized spars (what a stupid idea that is, who wants
to be able to fry an egg on their boom in summer). This
too-smart guy moved his top band up about 3/4" and the
bottom one down the same. Wow what an increase in sail area!
The problem is that he had to go to another sailmaker to get
his bigger sail, not competitive in the class. Plus, the
headboard got jammed at the top because the halyard went
over & into the sheave right against the bolt rope. As I
recall, there was some discussion of banning him from the
class but the concensus was "why bother?"

Fresh Breezes- Doug King