I would hate to try and put this into a translator>>>

I believe what Wouter is trying to say is that every feature in a design has to be carefully ballanced to make a boat that can be considered good in more than 1 condition. The MacQuaire Innovation speed sailing boat is pretty fast and light but it only goes 1 way on flat water. Upwind performance must be ballanaced with downwind performance, abilty to sail in flat water has to be compromised for performance in waves or chop, no 1 design will do it all.

It is possible to build a boat significantly lighter than what is being typically made up there now. The loads on a boat during sailing are not the only consideration you need to make though. Hnadling a boat on land, on and off a trailer and through non-sailing gyrations such as righting after capsize etc. require quite a bit more structure to make something that will last. A min weight boat designed with consideration to the sailing loads only will most likely look like a golf ball after a few weeks due to heal and other body part contact, and you will probably have gone through a few masts and other rig parts as well.

From a practical consideration my opinion is that the current A cat is about as low as you would want to go design wise. Even here you only have a 1 up uni rig platform that you will only rarely see going out in winds over 20 knots, and when violently pitch poled stands a pretty good chance of requiring a new mast.

The other trade off I have not mentioned hits on the cost. Lighter is better, but below some already explored limits the advantage is questionable at best. If you realy want to save weight the biggest bang for your effort is still a diet.

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Matt