James,
Could be seen as effectively increasing the waterline length of the hull when sitting at the back of the boat sinking the stern, and does have some buoyancy effect.
At this time there is no regulation in the class rules about adding wings to the boat either as long as you don't go beyond the max effective width (righting limitation). So having something reach back past the sterns to stand on is also possible/allowed without using these gantries. Although you would need to make the platform more narrow to have such elements fitted within the width regulation.
However the forward pull of the trapeze is already quite significant when you are standing as far back as the sterns so I really don't believe such racks will be winner. This stuff works on very short boats like the 12 foot skiffs but not nearly as well on longer boats like the F16's, if at all.
Guys, we must keep looking at these class rules as a mild development class. They only regulate on IMPORTANT performance parameters, not on fears or artistic expression. If anybody wants to hoist the mainsail upside down then they are allowed to do so. If you want to make your rudderstocks out of pure gold then be our guest ! Eventually you'll find that boat performance is not improved significantly if at all by such things, hence the absense of any need to regulate it. That is the core of any formula setup. We must all accept this if we want to belong to this class.
Wouter
