Then I would agree with your consensus that just tweaking the sails is probably not worth paying all the extra markup on. Especially if the sails are being adapted to an existing and proven design (allbeit on a different boat class)

I agree that the current sail materials are very durable (with the possible exception to the spin, which after one season looked more like sailtape than spinnaker in my case) and should be kept to encourage part-time enthusiasts to remain in the sport because it's cost-effective over a development class

If the sail profile itself changes dramatically to favor one type of racing over another (distance vs. cans), then expect a change in the class demographics. A study of the current population of distance and buoy racers or turnout may be helpful in this regard.

I love medium distance stuff (25 - 75 miles) because it's not too taxing on the body/budget/vacation time, but I favor buoys as the most economical use of my time because you can get a lot more work on starts, turns, transitions in a given race day. That, and you have more opportunities to go from "worst to first" than a one-race distance day.

So, that being said, I'd favor an improvement of the sailplan itself as long as performance around the buoys didn't suffer dramatically.

I have been a light air sailor who feels this is a good measure of sailing ability in terms of boat handling and racing tactics. Heavy air sailing is (to me) an entirely different realm which requires much more emphasis on boat handling and survival sailing than course strategy.

To that end, I would like the ability to de-power in heavy air better than what exists currently, be it in the form of a shortening sail, ability to flatten sails better, or something else..

Having spanned the entire gamut of crew weights, I really love the ability of the N20 to handle the heavier crews and offer plenty of space to move my tall keister around (wouldn't mind the shorter platform if my crew was a supermodel nympho, but I don't recall being that lucky)