Lets look at from another point of view. In Europe now the customer is protected by various laws that protect their investments...eg the buying of a boat.

Each boat is normally sold with a warrenty eg 12 months and this protects the customer against the failure of the equipment...however the customer is also protected in another way...ie is the goods fit for purpose, in the UK we call it the sales of goods Act...It is part or Euro legislation. Simply put if you paid £1,000, cheap boat,(just change the symbol for appropriate currency) for a boat would you expect it to last as long as a boat that you paid £50,000, expensive boat, Both boats float initially and do their job...however if the cheap boat breaks we say what do you expect...but if the expensive one does you get upset. Now if we make the cheap one 5-10kgs lighter than the expensive one what do you say?

So certainly in Europe boaty builders have to be careful what they do...build a boat 5kg heavier and it is robust or build it lighter and it breaks and they get sued!!!!

However it has been said before on this thread boathandling is key to a lot of things. 1 bad tack costs you 5-10 boat lengths each time...a heavier boat will loose you possibly 5 in a race.

BTW Macca I was going to say the red one...do I have to leave the room?