Hi David, just to clarify my point, you wrote :"This then gives the crew a longer time to react in.(To drive off, let the gust pass, or get both hulls under them, sheet in the jib completely to choke the main...)".
Based on what I found when going from heavy boat to light boat, with the lighter boat, NONE of your stated reactions were necessary ! I`m sure if you ask an A-cat sailor they might tell you the same thing. To depower the light boat upwind, use the rudders to feather the boat into wind a bit, you gain height & speed. Obviously this works more on boats with boards than non-board boats - I know that if you try this technique on a Dart 18 she will stop dead in the water, the technique in sailing a Dart fast upwind is to play the mainsheet until your arms fall off, one of the reasons I "upgraded" to a light, fast centreboard boat with a moderate sailplan. Being lighter with less sail area means being able to push harder downwind without worrying about submarining. The Mosquito hull shape is almost identical to Tornado, fine entry bows which pop out easily without much loss in speed, so the momentum issue is no big problem. As I said, my opinion is based on actually sailing both boats in the same conditions and noting the difference in how they actually perform, not by analysing theoretical knowledge. Downwind I can understand your position, but I think it depends on hull shape as to whether the boat has a tendency to bury bows or not, and I think that how quickly the boat pops out & accelerates to it`s full speed, the less tendency it will have to go nose-over. A boat doing 16knots boatspeed in 20 knots of wind will have much less apparent wind in the sails, it`s only when it stops that you have a gain in power in the sails, so the solution is to sail a well-designed boat that won`t go nose-over easily, and if it`s howling, stay back (I`m talking non-spinn boat here). It`s not difficult to grasp, even if you`re a novice. On that point, and I think that was the spirit of Jerry`s question, a novice won`t head out if it`s 20-25knots, until his confidence is up. Also, capsizing is just part of sailing and is a sign that at least you`re pushing hard. An easy-to-right boat makes capsizing more fun. I`m qualified to write this after putting in 5 capsizes in 3 races, and still ending up 4th at our Nationals !
I think that if you`re comparing different weight boats that have different hull shapes it becomes more complicated, and I`m certainly not going to get into that, except to say the following (and it`s not criticism on anyone`s way of doing things, just my observations ) :
One way to build boats is to make them light, with moderate sailplans. Because of this combination they can have slimmer hulls which cut through waves more easily & won`t slow down that much when they do, since they need less bouyancy to counteract the power of a bigger, more powerful rig. I`m thinking A-cat, F18HT, Tornado etc. The Australians pioneered this way of building boats & will, it seems, always be the leader in this field. (possibly because the Americans have followed the opposite route !)
The Other way is to make the boat heavier, load up the power to compensate, but then the hulls NEED to be fuller to load up the bouyancy (both to overcome the extra power & to "equalise" the increased weight). Also probably need to widen the beam to compensate for extra power. The American designers seem to prefer this route. That`s why the Supercat has it`s fuller hull shape, and the Tornado has the slimmer shape. It`s not each designer thinking differently, it`s about each designer creating hull shapes that work together with the chosen weight & sailplan. There`s no right & wrong, both ways work, have their own sets of pro`s & cons etc. My personal view is that boats with fuller bows tend to slow down more when the nose goes in than boats with finer bows, I could be wrong here, but there`s more drag in a fuller bow. And a heavy boat with it`s nose pointing down is likely to pursue that direction with much enthusiasm, given that it has more momentum, a bit like hammering a nail into a piece of wood with a really heavy hammer..

Cheers
Steve