It seems apparent that Bill isn't in favour of most anything that he hasn't "incorporated" whithin his boats, but that doesn't mean that other innovations are not good.
Carbon is the way that ALL boats are going, LIKE IT OR NOT. It is similar to the transision from marine ply as the favoured building material for most if not all the high performance sailing craft of that time, to fibre reinforced plastic (polyester and E glass). There were all sorts of "wild" reasons given that fibreglass would NEVER replace ply. To heavy, to slow, to expensive, and UNSAFE, were just a few emotional "reasons" that were given at the time, (sound a little familiar?). Well, we are at just such a watershed in the development of "the next generation" of building materials right here right now, and nothing is surer than over the next few years "if it aint carbon/kevlar, then it aint there"
There is a load of conjecture and, I may say "Rubbish" being bandied about the diameter, the comparison to aluminium, the comparisons to "wind surfers" wall thickness etc, for the Tornado carbon mast. You only have to look to a class that is more appropriate that successfully converted to carbon masts years ago without "reducing" diameters etc, and is growing (as a class) more now than at any time in their history. The A class is the example that Tornado's should be looking to for validation of their decision to move forward into carbon masts.