How important is height?

The trouble with words like tall, short light and heavy are that they rely on some sort of perspective. At 5'5" and 11 stone, I see people of 5'10" and 13 stone as tall and heavy. Someone 6'3" and 15 stone will see them as short and light. Therefore, I see many boats as being designed as needing too much weight, whereas Gordon sees them all as too small. I faind I'm blown away by heavier people upwind in a breeze quite often, so weight isn't always bad...
As far as average heights and weights of 35 year olds go, it is really the mode that is wanted, isn't it? I'd take a guess at Laser sized...