Moths

No. One-off racing keelboats are common enough. Sail- and spar-makers know enough to make something decent for them without needing prototypes.

The reason you will probably never see a new development class is because it is almost impossible to get together enough like-minded souls to make it happen. It takes a lot of effort to run a class, let alone start one. People buy into, say, Merlins, because there are lots of existing events in nice places. People bought into, say, RS200s because there was the marketing muscle to establish the class. How are you going to establish a new development class?

Historically, these classes started because a bunch of guys in a club decided, we all want to sail something like this, and they went and built a bunch of them. Then a bunch of guys at a nearby club went, hey, like the look of that. And just a handful of such classes grew out of the huge numbers of local classes that used to exist, and are still around today. But now, the dynamics are completely different. You need the budget of a company to start a new class.

You're right - I should have said One Designs, not SMODs.  But the problem is probably worse for SMODs because the manufacturer has the final say.  Congrats to the Blaze class for pushing through the changes.

Sadly, you are probebly right. Is this because the cost of developing a decent rig is so high? I think the Americans got round this by supplying a one design rig for thir classic Moths, and allowing lots of wacky hull shapes under it. 

As for classes with wings...how many Lasers sell compared to Blazes?

It's been that for a long time. I speak as an "average sailor" who bought an International Moth and attempted to learn to sail it on a lake.