Youth classes

Not true..... its a huge factor, just different hulls have different characteristics under loading.

The finn is naturally tolerant of a wide range of weights due to high dispacement and a hull shape which, under loading, increases imersion without proportionally increasing waterline beam. Some 5+kilos is very little for this class, and even less for Mr Emmett who feels its quite reasonable to train hopeful female Olympians with protein and weights to gain at least twice that.

Weight (so long as not excessive) slowing you down in the light stuff, especially 'minimal' winds, is a myth. The sole indicator for over 100years of a boats light wind speed potential is the waterline length/sail area ratio...... the sail/weight (so called Bruce number) has no relevance till strong motion is given.

For every kilo added in righting moment more force on the sail can be balanced up to a threshold, when it tails off ... in the case of some dinghies very sharply - this threshold gives us the optimum weight for a given hull and in most cases has nothing to do with sail area. The myth that more weight in a dinghy can enable you to carry more sailarea in more wind exists because thats how it feels when you are over powered but, the reality with most planninghulls is, the threshold weight is very close to the lower limit needed to stop it tipping over.

just to add my ten pence if all the girls are under 70kgs does it matter,wouldn't they all be that little bit handicapped?(I've never raced a laser so I don't know there charactoristics)