Actually I think the boat weight has little to do with the winning, the nut on the tiller does that better than saving 10 or 20 kilos any where on the boat itself. IMO if the boat is well designed ( as it would appear the new generation Viper and Falcon etc are )and has enough volume then it can handle a wide range of weights and if the mast and depowering ability is well designed, also a wide range of wind. I just sort of feel that AHPC should be a little more honest and not cherry pick the better handicap when it suits.

My biggest " beef" has always been the handicap given to the single handers, its obvious that the single hander will be slower around the course than the crewed boat as very often you need 3 - 4 hands, no single hander will beat a well crewed boat even in light winds on the handicap dissadvantage they are given. Now that is something that the handicap formulaes need to address.

At my club, the single handers often race with the jib on as well, it does equalise things up a bit, perhaps we could make the jib optional for the single handers ?