Thanks, Bill, but what you are also saying is that with the existing designs, women need to be heavier to be competitive.

Actually, I was thinking in terms of weight being equal and sailing/racing ability being equal. And for the sake of argument, let's pretend that there are as many women racing sailboats as there are men. I think you still will rarely see women competing directly against men at the highest levels of the sport. It does not have to do with whether they are heavy enough to hold the boat down.

I think I know the answer, but I am just wondering whether other people will come up with it.

By the way, I was wrong in my former post -- the three sailing classes that are Open to both men and women are Laser, 49er and Tornado.