Hi Jake,
You bring up an interesting question, "what is one design"?
Is it exactly identical equipment for all sailors within a given class? If so, how do we handle the fact that "people are not one design"? Heavier people make the boat have more drag going through the water; lighter weight people have an advantage with less hull drag. When the wind blows hard, say 15 knots and up, the heavier people have an advantage because they can generate more righting moment and therefore have more sail thrust. Even enough more sail thrust to more than offset their greater hull drag. We all know from experience that lighter weight teams have a speed advantage in light winds and heavy weight teams have a speed advantage in strong winds. Putting non one design people on our class boats has shot a big hole in our one design class objective of having all competitors having the same max boat speed potential on all points of sail in all wind conditions. How do we fix this? What is the best way, the most fair way, to compensate for this inequality?
Let the ideas flow....
Bill