The A-class is a development boat but after 30 years of development the class is stable and you can use the same boats for several years and still be able to finish close to the top. The original rule for the A-class was only length, beam and max sail area, but a min weight of 75 kg was added a couple of years ago to avoid the most fragile designs. Hydrofoils could give big speed gains and to keep the class stable a rule was added to keep them out. But all rules have loop holes and now an A-class builder managed to build " banana" shaped centerboards that was legal and that boat is sailing in the current A-class europeans. The boat is maybe 10% faster than the other boats!!!!
