I think I have to go back to the initial question in the thread-starter to answer this one. First of all, as wind picks up, the advantage of a low weight boat decreases quite rapidly. I do not recall how the conditions were during the last texel, but were they not around 10 to 12 knots or more? And I think it is fair to say that low weight boats have their biggest advantage in lighter winds than 10 knots, take the A-cat for example.
Second, I initially asked the question more like a "what is theoretically possible question" more than a statement that low weight always is best for a beach cat. However, one do have to keep in mind that all high performance development classes use pretty much of their time (and money)to find new ways of saving weight. And as time goes by and new techniques and technologies are discovered, maybe there will be ways of making the mast for instance a couple of kilos lighter AND 500 dollars cheaper. And that is exactly why one should keep focus on, and ask these questions on catsailor. First because it stirrs people up and causes discussions, second it "provoces"(sorry, only word I could think of) the home builders and engineers on this forum to think of new ways of imroving beach cats. I don't know about the rest of you, but I myself am extremely keen on trying to find new ways to make the cat go faster <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />