Hi Mary,
good idea to bring this topic to the general forum.
The impact of weight on performance is much smaller than many people think. Why? The first reason is, because heavy weight hurts only in light winds. As soon as you have to de-power the sails, the extra weight gives you more righting moment and you can use more pressure in the sails and hence you are faster (up wind). Down wind you are slighly slower in any wind conditions. But you win a race on the up wind leg anyway. (okay I have to say: I assume that the weight difference is in the hulls, not in the rig).
The second reason: If your 150kg boat is 5% over weight, then your total weight (assuming 150kg crew) is just 2.5% over weight. Somebody may play with texel or schrs calculators to find out, how many percent performance are equal to 2.5% more total weight. I guess below 1%. How big is the skill difference between sailors? Something over 10%, I guess.
Common understanding says heavy weights win in strong winds and light weights win in light winds. At least that is my experience in any sailing boat.
Another common understanding is: The reason why we lose races is because our boat is too heavy. The reason why we win is because of our skill of course. That's the reason why some people concentrate so much on weight. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
As long as you don't sail races only at light winds I would not care about these weight differences.
The impact of weight on boat handling at the beach however is another story. On our beach with soft sand and steep slope, we removed even the rudders of our Dart (which is only 140kg). Maybe we are too weak...
Last comment on weight: Every kilogram you can save in the rig is worth doing it, because it helps to righten the boat after capsizing.
About the new and sleeker sails, I don't know... I think that even a new sail has more camber than required. You have to pull it flat anyway. I have never had the problem of a too flat sail, but I know only a few boats of course.
Cheers,
Klaus
