Are you talking prizes or fleets?

Certainly having numerous prizes that reward real accomplishment at various levels in the class is a good thing.

Having different fleets in the class is a bad thing... This is where you get the conflict... "Hey... don't take me up... I am not in your fleet... we are not racing" ! I don't see how you avoid this on the water... so, One fleet... multiple prizes.

This of course is a class culture issue.... If the class chooses not to acknowledge various elements of it's demographic...... That defines the culture.

In A class, what prizes would you want to award at a worlds.
Overall plus Age brackets?... Youth, Masters, Grand masters?... What else? For singlehanders.. it's tough to come up with demographics that can be given prizes that reflect the core culture of the class.