The mosquito is a 2 distinct material boat. The original timber material and the newer fiberglass materials. The boat was designed as a timber boat and the existing rule relating to gunwale round reflects the requirement for a minimal round to ensure the timber boats don’t fail. The newer fiberglass boats don’t appear to have strength issues so what is the purpose of making the gunwale stronger?
The second problem is the moment we change a rule that intern changes the shape of the hull we date all existing boats and this will devalue them. From an external perspective ie, a new person to the class, the newer shaped boats will appear to be “better” as they do not understand that the change above the water does not make the boat any faster. The issue with this is that people won’t want to buy the “older” shape and will not be encouraged to buy cheaper, “older shape” secondhand boats.
We had a discussion this weekend with a none catamaran sailor and he was impressed that the mosquito has not gone down the road of high tech material and people could still build a timber boat for cheaper than a glass one and remain competitive.
In most cases it is still cheaper to build a timber boat then buy a glass one. By changing this rule we will be making the glass boat a fraction cheaper and the timber boats less attractive due to them being of the “older” design. Therefore we will be encouraging the more expensive route rather than encouraging the cheaper one!

Steven & Peter