I think that the one neccasary rule that the class voted in was the minimum class wieght. I have not heard a great deal of concern over Ben's wing or lifting boards. The hydrofoil rule was put in place to ban vertical lifting foils, but not banana board or canted boards. Over the winter I will be modifying my A for canting boards, not because it will improve my sailing abilities, but because I want to use it a a development platform. I am also looking at hydrofoils that can be removed for competitions. Again as a test platform. For the most part, this class seems very open to development, from ben's Wing, to Pete Melvin's paint on his black A-3 to new sail plans, differing hull shapes and configurations and many other designs and thought to get speed out of the boat. So much of this thread is spent on stating that this class isn't really open to develpoment. Nothing could be further from the truth. It would be better to focus on how the top sailors in the class do find their speed, from glenn Ahsby, Steve Brewin, Lars Guck, Pete Melvin and the other gr3eat sailors who chose this class to race in and to help to develop.