Actually there is a formula.

Fat boys like me get a bigger shute, thats it. The main stays the same. So we have a little more help downwind, but we get no help upwind. (as a gravitationally challenged individual I gotta say I love it)

It was a marketing ploy. A genius ploy really. Not too many people use the "big boy shute" but just having that as a possiblity seems to have given the class a growth spurt.

So far the bigger shute has not helped me all that much. The other guys in the top of the fleet, Mark, Bill and Bob have nothing to fear from the forumula. Time on the tiller is a bigger advantage than the big boy shute. Most of it is mental. The shute makes the big boys think they are keeping up.