As a weekend warrior, I would not upgrade to a carbon stick. I also have no delusions about competing against the Olympic pro's so that is not a problem. The problem comes up a few years from now when some of my weekend competitors have carbon sticks when they turn their boats over and now they have the latest in sail shapes which are built for the carbon mast. Now the class is split at the grass roots level and participation may suffer... In an extremley tiny North America almost non existant class the effect is magnified by such an expensive changeover.

Still, If the boat is going to remain Olympic... it probably needs to continually upgrade...