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.

I'd also assume you can tune mast stiffness and sail shape to match weight. The Europe women certainly did so, while in the Radial they obviously cannot.

Indeed, and it naturally follows that a class of hull with a broader competitive weight tolerance would have more rigs to suit (change gear) a broader range of sailors. One with a tighter weight range would obviously better optimise around one.

Im not so sure about the Europe but I thought, correct me if Im wrong.......... in the old days of aluminium masts, the cross sectional dimensions were fixed, and stiffness was given by how much aluminium went into the section, so a given flexibilty fore and aft had to be balanced by a similar lateral flexing. You choose the lateral flex for your weight and there should be a mast to fit. Then as C/fibre developed (and the Europe class, if nothing else has given us all plenty of development) manufacturers found that lateral stiffness could be delivered without compromising its longitudinal ability to flex, i.e. bend and depower. The weight of the helm could then be balanced on the sail, by means of fullness, height of fullness and leech tension. Changing a sail being more cost effective than a mast, the masts have become more uniform.

Im sure Jons reason is true also, and this, as well as the above has been mirrored in many other classes. Take the OK...... hull has a high tolerance of 12-15 stone, rigs in aluminium used to be classed into 3 groups, red/green/blue (I think?). Now the've taken Carbonfibre on its just one with a variety of sails. The finns the same, covered by 2 rigs over a massive weight range.. The Europe with a 20kilo range is by comparison quite small.