Mary,

Could it be that ISAF may have got it wrong? This is from their minutes of the 2000 events committee.

The Events Committee therefore recommends that the following events
make up the 2004 Olympic Regatta:

Men Windsurfer; Single Handed Dinghy; Two Handed Dinghy Keelboat – Fleet

Women: Windsurfer; Single Handed Dinghy; Two Handed Dinghy Keelboat – Match

Open: Single Handed Dinghy; Two Handed Dinghy; Multihull

ISAF then changed the women keelboat to match.

If ISAF thinks that men and women can not compete equally and therefore set up separate disciplines in the windsurfer, single handed dingy, double handed dingy and keel boats why not the mulithull? In other sports men and women have separate disciplines. Women runners don't run against the men. Regardless of any reason whether it be strength, height, weight let gender compete against gender. If all things were equal then we would have more "open" racing at the olympics because of the classes chosen.

The Hobie 16 is one such boat that does allow "open" racing. The current world champions is a mixed team. You can not state weight or height has an influence there. As with over 200 team there were a combination of male/male the same weight and height. It was team work and skill not gender. But has an all woman team won, no.

So for the orgainal answer, if you choose the right discipline you can have a very succesul mixed team. But for ulitmate fairness it should be gender based.