I think perhaps too much is being made of the mast tip weight issue - as John Pierce puts it, when mast builders find the limit of a durable mast in carbon, they will have reached a point where it can`t become any lighter unless it becomes more fragile. Ultimately a super-light carbon mast will still heave a "tip weight", it can never be zero (unless the mast is filled with helium ). So if the tip weight comes out at 3kg, the gain would only be 3,5kg over the current rule, or 2,5kg over the current Stealth mast. Now I know that if I bought a super-light carbon mast I might go up one placing in my fleet, but it would take a lot more than that to elevate me to the point where I am "unbeatable" due to an equipment advantage.
Another factor to take into consideration on the mast tip weight rule is that, should certain boats (such as the Mosquito) within the F16 framework, elect to have a substantially SHORTER mast than the max. allowed, this would reduce the tip weight even more since the leverage is shorter (I`m no engineer, so please excuse my theory here if it`s incorrect.) Ok, the Mosquito is a bad example as it`s not full F16, but should someone develop a short fat rig with an idea of challenging the high-aspect ratio believers, he should not be limited to a mast tip weight that works for an 8,5m mast when his mast is only 7,3m.

The only negative aspect of doing away with the min. tip weight I can see is that the F16 class is made up of (mostly) boats that are OD classes such as Taipan, Stealth, Spitfire, Blade etc, who must comply with their own class rules to race OD. If the perception is that carbon is better, lighter & faster, who would buy a class-legal mast and a carbon mast for F16 use only ?

Another interesting thing is how will the Stealth class take the news that all older Stealths have a tip-weight of 5.5kg, but newer boats can have lighter masts ? Within a One-design framework this is a dangerous thing to do and I`m sure John Pierce knows this. Just because the technology exists that allows him to build lighter masts than he could 3 years ago doesn`t mean that he should use it, unless he wants his class to disintegrate.

I think we need to be careful not to open the rules up to the point where the original founder boats in the class are no longer competitive. Development is good as long as it is not too rapidly implemeted. Saying full carbon hulls are allowed is fine, as long as the boat complies with min. weight. Removing the min. weight starts an arms race.

With this in mind I would think lowering the min. weight to accommodate the Stealths is all that would be required at this point in time. The percieved performance advantage of carbon over alu. would then be acceptable to 90% of the members.

Oh, and just a small note to John Pierce :
"Already there is little difference in the price of carbon and aluminium masts."
"Well carbon masts are affordable, you can have them now."
Please send me 1x 7,3m carbon mast for Mosquito catamaran, painted to match natural anodised aluminium, together with invoice for 150 pounds. That`s what I`m paying for an aluminium mast blank, anodised. (don`t worry John, I won`t hold you to that price )

Cheers
Steve