Hi Guys,
Not an A-class sailor, but here`s what I see happening. I could be wrong here, but my understanding is that the ORIGINAL A-class rules were written with very few limitations, and were open such that boats like the Unicorn are no longer anywhere near the current spec.
Like all unlimited things, it gets out of hand financially, and if allowed to continue, would end up like the C-class where only 4 boats exist, and only go out for a sail every 27 years to defend a title that means nothing. A great concept, awesome boats, but nobody except the four campaigners really cares much for it. Even racing ? Hmmm.

So as a result new rules have been introduced over the years to control development and keep it reasonably affordable, boats are not outdated so quickly so they hold a reasonable resale value etc. This is all good stuff, but I think what Stephen Medwell and others are contesting is that this is NOT the original A-class and is NOT in the original spirit of the founders and the ruleset they created. Perhaps they never envisaged canted boards, curved boards or even hydrofoils, and so they never wrote a prohibition of these into the rules. The fact that the rules don`t say anything about them allows some idiot/genius to experiment with them within the class.

Writing new rules into the class and having them voted on by the membership is a great way to protect the interests of the CURRENT members and is a great idea to maintain stability in the class, however as Steve Medwell points out, A-class has moved towards the setup of a formula class rather than a pure development class.

In my opinion this is a GOOD thing. Where are the B, C and D classes today ? If A-class is allowed to continue down a path of pure development it will be restricted to those with very large bank balances, who we all know would rather be sailing something a little bigger.

Just another opinion.
Steve