Here's a "quandry" for you, as this has actually happened, quite often around here. Say a boat wants to race in an open fleet, distance race. Say the boat has a spinnaker on board, but due to the wind direction, and the course direction, the chute never leaves the bag, so effectively, this boat is carrying extra weight and windage just by having the thing on board, never to be used. Along side this boat races another just like it, but this skipper left his spin in the car, pole too, and halyard, sheets, bag, all the extra crap you need for a spinnaker.

Now the guy with the spinnaker on board but never using it has to use a much lower rating than the guy without, who is actaully sailing a lighter boat with less windage! At the finish line, they tie, crossing at exactly the same instant. Who wins? The guy without the extra stuff who is also using the higher rating of course.