Part of a message I just send Rolf in a PM conversation:

I did quite a bit of work a couple of years ago on a design for a dedicated single handed F16 and couldn't come up with something within the rules that I felt would be competitive enough to justify committing the money to build. As you know there are a couple of issues. The not enough hands thing is the big one as righting moment can be worked around (A classes have less righting moment than an F16 but are faster around the course). Extra hands makes the sloop rigged boats not only faster at the marks but all the way around the course, upwind you can be playing main and Cunningham not one then the other, downwind you can play main and kite not just kite and with two hands the crew can play the kite, not just pull it on and hold it like you end up doing when cat rigged. This gives a big advantage, for example without a kite sloop rigged Taipans and 5% faster around a course than cat rigged.

I believe this issue was originally masked in the F16 class because of the nature of the early adopters, which could be loosely grouped into two brackets; the cat rigged boats were skilled/experienced sailors looking for the extra challenge/ thrill of using a kite and the sloop rigged boats were couples and/or parent child teams looking for a way to introduce a partner to sailing with the ability to go still go sailing on days they weren't interested. Now that skilled teams are becoming more common on the sloop boats the real status quo has become obvious.

Fixing the issue is hard, particularly if people want to maintain the ability to switch between modes on the one platform as any systems implemented to make sailing a cat rigged boat easier if successful will also be applied to the sloops. For example I played with the idea of having a furling kite. This could be easily hoisted on a 3:1 halyard from trapeze while approaching the top mark and as you turn the corner you just have to sheet on, reverse applies at the bottom mark, furl as you approach then drop once you turn the corner.

With this in mind we need to find ways to make the cat rigged boats 5% faster in ways that can't be immediately copied on sloop boats, which requires a relaxation of some rules for Cat rigged boats. At this stage it would be worth getting Mark S involved in the conversation as the SCHRS rating system can be used to calculated the returns on potential changes.

Some changes that could be considered:
1. Removing the tip weight limit on masts for Cat rigged boats which would allow people to use A class masts.
2. Removing 1/2 girth limit on kites
3. Dropping the minimum weight 10kg