Okay..two issues now going on here!
Let us take the PY number first. JRW, you're right, NO ONE has any idea, all you can do is look and then take an educated guess. I've been looking at new dinghy designs since not long after the Ark so maybe I've had a tad more experience but in the end, making a prediction is a nothing more than a shot in the dark. So go on, have a quick punt and settle on a number!
The second issue is one that is much bigger (if you will excuse the pun).
I did do an article on this oh...3 years ago for DSM but am thinking that maybe it is time for this subject to be revisited and revised. For it is an inexcapable fact that as a 'race' - we are all getting taller, bigger and one would have to add - heavier. Yet in so many classes, the ticket to the front of the fleet is the exact opposite - less weight meaning more speed.
What I find interesting is how few designers and boatbuilders are really looking at this - instead, the 'charge of the light brigade' continues unchecked. There are a few wiser minds out there.... Mike Lyons at Cirrus Raceboats, builder of the Blaze, has been working on the Halo for some time now. I've sailed the boat, albeit in light airs and can confirm that this will be a boat for those who have eaten all the pies! (and that is before they add a kite to the boat).
Having sailed the big Blaze, Vareo, Phantom and now Devoti D-One, what is clear to me is that these are all boats that are unashamedly aimed at the bigger framed sailors. Even more so in the D-One, for although you can flatten the main to go upwind well, when you have a big kite up and you get a gust of wind, then keeping the hull under the rig is always going to be an issue.
So have RS gone for a lightweights boat.....I would have to say that it doesn't look so to me but again, as with the PY, until you can get out there and try the boat in a full range of conditions, we are back to speculation.
BUT...remember - that a lightweight sailor probably has more chance of getting a good sail in a bigger boat, than a bigger sailor is a small boat. I'd love to go foiling and sail all sorts of classes but am too big at 94kg (it was 95kgs but we're out of pies) - but may well get a great experience in sailing these 'new' boats.
So Medway Maniac - I think to make the comment that creating a boat for the sub 70 kg range is a 'tall order' is maybe a bit unfair, yet there is not shortage of boats for you to sail that are out of the range of the bigger guys (you would be foiling nice and early for starters!). So it is back to that harsh lesson of dinghy design (but sadly not of modern marketing)- that one size does not fit all.
Watch this space though and when we get to sail the boat, we will bring you more details.
D