Are weight equalisaiton systems safe?

The Laser 4000 sails can be made quite flat which is a good thing because in a blow you are going upwind at quite a rate and that means the apparent wind is well forward which requires flat sails.  Flogging sails are a means of reducing power but they also produce quite a bit of drag.  The nice thing about the 4000 rig is that the main can be made so flat that it can be kept sheeted in without being overpowered giving really fast upwind performance.  It quite something to experience.

can we rebel and ignor them completely!!!

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It sounds like the sail has been totally redesigned for useability. I always find with fully battened sails they are only good for performance in medium to light windspeeds as in the very light stuff they tend to support such a deep draught it's hard to keep the airflow attached and they give very little feedback in terms of sail movement. In very strong winds it's harder to depower because there is less stretch in the cloth (unless using traditional cloth like the Tasar) and they are always producing drive because they sail is forced into a wing shape - ever tried holding on to an RS400 by the forestay in any wind? it just wants to sail off on it's own all the time.

Gee, you must be talking about very deep fully-battened sails. Moth, skiff, windsurfer and cat sails are fully battened and incredibly flat. As you say the Tasar main is a bit different because it has stretchy cloth.

I can only think the difference in your experience (and that of others in the UK on RSs etc) is due to the fact that some boats require deeper mains and they don't depower as well by simply being flattened. The effective flat fully battened sails don't really need to luff, when you ease them to reduce angle of attack the wind just seems to stream by each side of a dead-flat piece of cloth. We can regularly sail around with the head pushing us to windward, the centre streaming and causing (apparently) no drive or any other fuss, and the bottom driving normally.

I suppose the only slow boat I've sailed with a fully battened sail (apart from some kids boats) is the Solo, and that was only once. The boat I was sailing was set up lik ethe national champs (although we had a tiny and low-standard fleet here) and the thing had no gust response at all.

PS

Jim C is right, Ben/Bob wanted the Contender to be much lighter than it was. The IYRU introduced a minimum weight based on the freeboard, LOA and beam; that's one reason the Contender is fairly low-sided. The prototypes were just hard-chine ply boats, in films I've seen they look bloody quick in the right conditions.

Originally posted by Matt Jackson Right, stop there. The Contender is the perfect weight for it's height .

Possibly, but as I understand it Ben Lexcen's prototype was some 80lbs lighter...

Right, stop there. The Contender is the perfect weight for it's height . OK a Contender bare hull weighs more than a fully rigged Blaze but the Contender is a big boat remember.

There is always talk in the class about reducing it's weight, mostly from newcomers and those thinking of buying one. My response would be that if it was much lighter it would be impossible to tack in F4+ as you need to get so far back in the cockpit. The class has always resisted changing the weight rule although most boats are now built with maximum correctors (6kg).You really don't notice the weight when sailing it - just when pulling it up a ramp. This is the reason I'd like the Blaze to be lighter because at Scaling the ramp is pretty steep (not that I'm seriously considering a Blaze ) The Phantom only weighs 61kg and sails of the same PY - Imagine what a Blaze would do if went on a diet! All the Topper boats seemed to have been built on the heavy side which is probably why so many seem rather dated now - IMHO.

Incedentally did it really put on 5kg when the X design came out? The specs are both shown on the website and the hull weight goes from 65kg to 70kg?