The entry details for the 2014 Footy Gold Cup indicate that “skippers who wish to do so can voluntarily agree to sail within the UK Big Rig Template 2014” and that an “additional Trophy will be awarded to the highest placed skipper who agreed on the Entry form to be bound by Big Rig Template Rules”.
I’m curious to know if there are many skippers who are signing up for the Big Rig Template Rules. Presently, I have not signed up for the Big Rig Template Rules although I’d would be more than happy to do so if that’s what everyone else is doing.
Please share your thoughts.
Hi, Phil
Sadly i am not sure if i will be present at the 2014 goldcup due to college…
But i would/will definately sign up to race “inside” the bigg rigg template.
It is a simple enough rule for everyone to understand. It definately contributes to close racing!
For example, in Italy we can se 2700sqcm of sail on footys.
Ok, i can imagine that a footy with a super big rigg will be faster than a footy with just a big rigg.
But a super big rigg is just too much, footys can’t handle that, i’ve tried it, it works, yes, but only in drifters/really light wind not in realistic conditions.
Super big riggs are also hard to balance and tension on the shrouds is relatively hard to obtain.
Such riggs can be good.
But i am affraid that they might ruin close racing(not fully, just a bit) and make footys a game of luck when it comes to design.
The above are reasons why i, if i were a beginner sailor, would perhaps choose another class to sail in, instead of footys.
Hopefully i haven’t gone to far off course with this opinion.
Cheers, Erik
Hi Phil and Erik,
I have not signed and I will not sign this rule contrary to the free development of footy class.
Erik , I agree with you that very large areas beyond 25 dm ² can be used only by very light winds ( over- power arrives at about 2.5 knots) but one of the difficulties of the Footy is finding good sail area at the right time with the right geometry.
So I am absolutely against this “big template” , most Swiss with what I discussed in Salem are also against, the German too. According to Thomas , Bill Hagerup would also against .
Just for fun , I had fun drawing all possible ways to get to 22dm ² “big template” , keeping either the maximum height or the maximum height least 1 one two rows , you get about 142 possibilities and only 2 interesting . Where is the research interest since eventually all boats will have exactly the same big rig ?
See my screen copy
This is the first possibility, the second possibility is to put 4 steps…
60 red squares for 60 green squares
Jean-François Bessière
French Registrar
Hi to all,
Concerning me and a large part of the Italian group, I and many others accepted to race within the limits imposed by 22 dm2 big rig template.
I personally find very interesting to apply this limit more or less for the same reasons Erik and the UK group, that are principally not further complicate a class that is already very complex and reduce the total number of utilized rigs.
At the moment my boat has got 6 rigs with the 22 dm2 that is the largest. Without this limit I’ll have to add at least other 2 (25 and 28)… but I think that 6 rigs are a sufficient big number, especially travelling by plane.
In fact, the other reason is practice: in the plane luggage… very large rigs could be more complicated.
In our group (Footy Italia) also for racing between us we are thinking about to make the same solution of Britain ones for next year utilizing the big rig template and the maximum of 22 dm2 for the biggest rig.
I think that we will take a “democratic formal decision” (majority of votes in the Footy Italia group) about it at the end of this season and after seeing what will happen at the Gold Cup in UK.
Bye
Hi Claudio,
It’s pretty funny to compare opportunistic speech to published photos. I really doubt that on this one , there are a lot of rigs less than 22dm² … 
Jean-François.
Hi Jean francois
frankly I do not understand what you mean with “opportunistic speaking” in this situation… I simply answered to the Phill question exposing my point of view.
Of course in the photo of our group there are at least 4 rig bigger than 22 dm2 and are all boats of the “genova” group.
As I’ve written, on my boat the max rig is 22 dm2 and in that photo the ITA 102 rig is a 18 dm2.
Thanks to the Genova boats evolution, we have seen clearly that in certainly weather conditions a bigger rig give more speed and we are seriously thinking about avoiding the biggest rig proliferation… in order to not have 8-9 rig for each boat.
Such a big number of rigs could be interesting for old modeler;), expecially for the retired ones… but not so interesting for the new entries and also for travelling… and also for the diffusion of footy.
For that reason we are thinking that a limit for the biggest rig could be usefull… becouse we know well that the evolution could continue in that direction…
So I’m pleased to accept the UK proposal (expecially because it is a proposal not an imposition;) ), try for this time to be at the Gold Cup with 22 dm2 for the biggest rig, speak about it, see what could happen and verify if this “experiment” could be really usefull.
I am also convinced that 22 dm2 Maximum surface for a footy might be sufficient and do not restrict the development of the class. More than anything else will not be conducive to realize very high displacement boats, over 600 grams… but I think that this could not be a problem.
Anyway this is olnly my opinion and I think that this way of seeing is quite the same for majority of us … but we haven’t made a “votation” till now… so… I don’t know now what we will decide at the end of this season.
Cheers
In addition to what has been written before, I can confirm that even Luigi e Enrico Audizio, Ruggero Falchetti and Roberto Broccoletti (if they were not wrong filling the form in English 
) are enrolled choosing to race within the limits of the “Big Rig Template Rules”.
If Rob Vice reads here, I think it would be helpful and interesting for everyone if in the list of participants on the UK Gold Cup on http://www.sailfootyuk.com/2014-gold-cup.html has been written explicitly who have accepted to compete within the limits of the “Big Rig Template Rules”.