Bill,

There is some more factors that hurt women in regards to boat speed that I have'nt seen mentioned yet. Here goes:

Been doing some Laser coaching for some of our local hotshots, men and women, and doing some from the back video
to help sort out differences upwind. We paired up boats
choosing competeters of approx the same weight and height.

Factors that really hurt women:

For a given body weight, women TEND to be shorter than men.
Most classes don't measure height, but really should. This is hugh in total righting moment.

Also, we found that when we had a pair approx. equal height and weight man and woman racing against each other the men seemed always to have better upwind speed. Even when we felt that the woman had better (flater) hiking form. We attibute this to the weight distribution difference between the mans body and the womens body. Ever done that old party
trick of step an arm length from the wall and bend over until your head is against the wall? Women can stand up from this position and men can't. Men have a significantly higher CG. Even in the 15-17 year old group we were working with.

This is a big deal in a Laser, but the effect should abate as we boats get wider, right?


The generalizations about womens competitive fire: Wouter is going it alone there, I'm married.
Mark L