A new class of dinghy?

And what would it have given us? We may have been 30 seconds faster around a course, therefore we'd have done less sailing. Not a great advantage IMHO.

If speed was what counts, we wouldn't be sailing Tasars. We in the Tasar stronghold appreciate other qualities, like the 100+ active boats in my state, and the club fleets of 10 or so boats every weekend. Why would we want to tear the class apart, destroy thousands of dollars of value in every boat, and increase the cost of having a top-class boat by about $15,000 merely in order to look trendy for five minutes or to finish 30 seconds earlier?

Finally, if people want to "stay current" in a two-person two-sail hiking dinghy there are some excellent boats to sail, such as the NS14 and N12. If staying current is the thing then such classes, which allow much more modern hulls than that of the Tasar, are the obvious choice.

I guess this is the reason why classes have splintered in the past - especially across continental lines.

You both make very valid points - which one I’d adopt personally would depend very much where I lived!    

I don't think hankering after a carbon mast has much to do with going faster. Carbon masts are a widely accepted technology (even for lasers in part...) with practicality, longevity (going by Julian B's blog posts on the subject) and long term cost advantages.

A simple circular carbon section is probably a lot cheaper than the present mast (that seems to be made of depleted uranium). As a paid up member of the worldwide brotherhood of midgets anything that makes stepping and unstepping a mast less dicey is good in my book...

Strange that the class did approve upgrades to the shroud tracks. New Ronstan ones would set me back 800quid - about twice what I paid for the boat. Given that shroud tracks add almost nothing to the practicality and very little to the enjoyment of sailing the boat it would seem more sensible to do away with them and just have a conventionally stayed carbon stick.

I think the class's decision had more to do with a desire to maintain quirkiness that forms part of the boat's identity and the workings of status quo bias.