I am with David...no beam limit...if someone wants to put up with assembling/disassembling their boat or trailering it on a tilt trailer let them.

But remember David, that a 14' cat with 8'-6" beam is an equal ratio to Bill Roberts 20' X 12' Supercat. That is Beam would be = to 60% of the length. Already a healthy beam if the non-US sailors don't try and gnaw away at it to meet their highway trailering limits. They could always build theirs to 2.5 meters instead...many sailors are already talking about making theirs less than 8’. Let everyone have what they want…choices…a good thing.

Just like the mast height/sail size…it will shake it self out…If someone shows up with a 10’ wide boat and it does little to add to the on the water performance they will narrow up the beam just to make trailering easier.…Two cuts with a chop saw, drill four holes, remove the panel they put in to expand the tramp...and whala...back to trailerable width in an afternoon...no harm, no foul....

Outside of a specifically “home built” designs, or a SC 15 with a foot loped off of the stern, I don’t see too many boats having any advantage to going beyond 8’-6” beam, they don’t have enough volume in the bows to handle it…but if they want to try, why stop them? With small Frankenstein boats that are easily, and relatively inexpensively modified, we might finally be able to put some actual evidence behind the theories we endlessly argue here on the forum…

Bob