Matt, speaking as a competitor only, how is it "more fair" if the weather mark is not SET at least a few minutes prior to the start?
You should know that if I'm on the foredeck of the signal boat, calling the shots - you will spend roughly the same amount of time on each tack going to the weather mark (which may mean it's not directly to weather in a current or where one side is obviously favored). Trust me.
Your pre-start tactic of sighting of the WM is born of race committees who don't understand that concept. When I was racing the H-14 NAs, we couldn't see the weather mark at the start (big waves, little boats and marks), but I knew the PRO (Irene McNeill) understood the "concept" - and that our weather legs would be about 10-12 minutes long. I'd start, sail on stbd. tack for ~4 minutes, then tack. I never overstood the mark. Same thing when going through the gate to go back upwind. Sail for ~4 minutes, then start looking for the mark.
That said, for catamaran courses where you can see the weather mark from the start, I rarely have it "loose" at the start for the very reasons you state.
