Being probably the prime instigator of the Spinnaker development in Australia I think I should add my perspective here.

I don't think there is "politics" involved nor any great resistance within the class against the spinnaker. It hasn't become part of the standard rig, partly because there is a lot of inertia when it comes to changing the Mosquito rules here, but mostly because there hasn't been any need to adopt the spinnaker 100%.

What we have is a class of non-spinnakered Mosquitoes which has been growing slowly for a few years now (and the pace of growth is picking up). We also have a growing group of existing Mosquito sailors and new Mosquito sailors who have rigged spinnakers and are enjoying the benefits .

The sailors with spinnakers don't mind taking them off for the titles (we can see from the results that sailing with a spinnaker all year and taking it off for titles does not hurt your performance !), so things are quite well balanced for now and the class is moving along nicely.

The spinnaker measurement rule has been kicking around for 3 years now and will very likely be added to the Mosquito rules at the next AGM, but that will still only be as an addition. I am certain that one day we will see spinnakers at titles (either alongside the current rig or instead of) but I don't expect it any time soon. As far as I'm concerned we can enjoy the best of both worlds for now.

As far as South Australia goes, I think it is simply that the spinnaker was first flown in Victoria. Other Victorian Mosquito sailors saw how it performed and rigged spinnakers and so it snowballed from there. South Australia has been pretty isolated from all this and the SA sailors haven't seen much spinnaker action (I've flown my spinnaker in the invitation race at most nationals since 2001 to get it seen, but the wind and course have been rubbish for the spinnaker every time).

I think once a few SA sailors get spinnakers rigged and put in the time to master it (don't expect to sail to VYC 80 on the first day out!), more will follow suit.