'Weight on the Wire'

I'd suggest that the changes to the control systems would give the 2009 Laser the edge.  The ease of adjustment means you are more likely to have the rig set up correctly more of the time, and lose less boatspeed when actually making an adjustment.  Therefore if everything else was equal, a Laser with the new style controls should be fractionally quicker round the course i.e. the class has developed.  However, it would seem it's not a significant enough change to actually affect the PY 

But that dosn't make them faster; if you had mothballed a brand new laser from 1980 and broke it out the packet at this years nationals I am sure it would be on a par with a new boat of today ...

While the handicaps are based on time, the actual decisions on what boat has which handicap is based on how they do in results terms against other boats. Take a simple example. Boat A sails against boat B regularly, and it is found that on average boat A beats boat B by 2 minutes per hour. A handicap system is set up so that boat B can stand as much chance of winning as boat B. Boat A then adds a spinnaker, and now can beat boat B by 3 minutes an hour. Boat B thinks "I'll have one of them" and gains the minute back. The speed relationship between the boats hasn't changed enough for the handicap to change. If Boat B had decided not to add a spinnaker, then Boat A or boat B would have needed a handicap change to make things even.

Stiffer, lighter hulls on all boats would have the same effect, and if on enough of the boats around, chances are just as likely that the boats which haven't changed would be perceved as going slower, and so be given a better handicap. I guess the only boats to suffer in this are the old ones of classes which have allowed changes in hull construction to make them go faster, so that even with new sails they can't keep up.

It tells me that 1) there are still plenty of old GP's handicap racing, 2) many classes are developing better hulls so reletive handicaps are staying similar and 3) get a new GP if you want to win on handicap. Or a new Phantom, Solo, Streaker, Enterprise - infact almost anything new will be faster than class average. Therefore to win, spend some money. Or get good at sailing.