So scaled everything up and stiffness becomes more of an issue.

You get more of a return from stiffening up the platform, than removing weight.

You can't state that without including some quantification.

Wasn't the mast section of the Fx-1 too stiff to tune the sail adequately for a single hander? Never sailed one seriouly but was is your expierience with it?

I was thinking more just the hulls/beams, and not neccessarily the rig. Although a flexible set of blades/rudders doesn't sound too appealling either.

Wasn't the mast section of the Fx-1 too stiff to tune the sail adequately for a single hander? Never sailed one seriouly but was is your expierience with it?

The Tornado got faster, as they got stiffer.

Sounds like you are saying that tornados got faster because they were built stiffer. Can you prove it? Tornado teams from the 84 games through 92 are still undecided.

For those who dont know those years were the transition period. State of the art was Gougeon cold moulded hulls and small diam beams. The boats from Goran was not faster in the beginning but they did not break all the time. The boats from sweden might also have been just a tiny bit faster in chop but the difference was probably in the maxed hull volume of those hulls. What killed the woodies and small diam beams were not performance but reliability, and initially price.

Keeping the rig stable is what makes the difference. I have not seen theoretical or real life proof on what is faster. A platform that bends and moves softly in seas or a stiff one bouncing and crashing through waves.
In flat water it makes no difference at all. Sailors are like sheep at times, following the leader instead of asking the whys and hows.

Bundy is smarter than jumping into this. There is no winning game here, only ways to loose business. The rest of the AHPC gang should take note and act as if they had brains.

And by the way. Those cold moulded cedar hulls from 83 are still as stiff if not stiffer than Gorans spaceships and still at min weight.
Talking about carbon masts, carbon hulls and carbon crap is pretty silly. Good engineering and skilled builders is what it takes to build anything good. Even wood can outperform a fresh engineer who throws carbon at whatever challenge he see.
Set untrained farmers to laminate hulls and it takes half a year before they have the skills. Then they are due a raise so they get replaced.
What really is discussed here is how to maximize profits. The rest is smoke, mirrors and spin as Wouter says. Smart butt spin doctors making stir fry to paint a pig.

I would buy US made at min weight.