Please find attached a revised proposal for a rule amendment regarding daggerboard and rudder measurement. Under this proposal, – Open discipline – daggerboards will only be measured in the “fully down” position, while the rules for the Classic discipline remain unchanged.
This joint proposal is supported by Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Our goal is to make things easier for everyone—sailors, builders, and measurers alike! We want to save costs and increase the durability of the boards.
This is not about achieving performance gains over existing designs.
In my view, it is unlikely to trigger radical new concepts, as current boards already utilize the available span very effectively.However, even under the existing rules, new foil profile sections will inevitably be developed rather sooner as later. When new molds become necessary, continuing to mandate the current “W-shape” is an unnecessary and expensive legacy requirement—offering no functional benefit for the Open discipline and actually having negative effects on board durability.
Additionally, this proposal closes several ambiguities, errors, and unintended loopholes in the existing rules. The current measurement rule for rudders requires checking across the entire range of motion, whereas this proposal secures measurement strictly in the racing position. Furthermore, the measurement geometry for rudders is currently incorrectly described in the rule, and there are unintended loopholes concerning potential new board designs (such as fixed T-foils, etc.).
Against this backdrop, I consider this simplification of the rule to be a clear improvement of the situation and a true “no-regret” step.
Best regards,
Rainer, president Germany National Association