How much Lard will a Laser 4000 take?

You're right, I believe a carbon rig would make a significant difference to the 4000.  Having sailed the 800 and then the 4000 i was amazed at how you could feel all that weight aloft.  Take coming into the leeward mark - remember these are fast boats - as you round up you can feel the momentum try to heel the boat as you turn in the 4000.  The solution is of course to use a wider radius, but I have many years sailing a Laser where you get used to quick changes of direction.

I've recently removed the racks from my 4000 - they are quite light - its the mast that's the problem.  The class will fade but then Laser might let the association run it and then there's a chance they will allow a carbon rig - then it will revive because its fundamentally a good design.  Meantime I wish they'd get rid of the correctors it just seems wrong to carry all that lead in a high performance boat.  Get rid of the lead and adjust the rack positions to compensate - you'll still have a good equalisation system and the lightweights will be able to pull the boat up the beach!

The 4000 was the first boat that Laser used foam sandwich.  So its not impossibly heavy but it is pretty solid so not as light as an 800 which is about a foot longer.  However the 4000 has an ali rig and being quite a tall one that adds a bit of weight and then there's that pole - they don't come much longer - that too is ali and so adds a good bit of weight.  It also carries equalisation weights.  So, all up, its quite a heavy machine for a high performance boat however it has a big board and the stern is not too flat so it doesn't stick and stall like a 800 in the light stuff.  The pole has wing-wangs which helps it run a bit deeper in the light stuff as well.  The sail area although large is not huge and the rig is very adjustable so its great fun when its really windy. 

All things considered it goes reasonable over a wide wind range but like any trapeze boat its difficult to sail up to its handicap if you aren't using the trapeze and in the really light stuff a conventional spinnaker boat will leave it for dead, downwind.

Its a well designed boat which I think would be marginally improved by forgetting the weights and give everybody a wider rack setting so that even the heavy wieghts have a click or two on the racks.  Personally I'd like to see an extra click for every 10 years the helm is over 30!

The performance equalisation works and so there are quite a lot of women on the circuit and there are quite a lot of big blokes.  Although still a lot of fun I would have thought more than 180 kg all up is going to make it hard to reach the top of the fleet, but at club level the challenge is staying upright and falling over is many times the disadvantage of a few 10s of kilograms.