A new class of dinghy?

Yes, arguably, the "conservatism" label is thrown around way too often. When you look at the people who sail some of the oldest and strictest of classes and compare them to those who sail the wildest, it's hard to see any evidence of conservatism on one side and free thinking on the other. In my own experience, many of those who sail the "wild" classes are quite conservative people generally - many of them have old-fashioned ideas about gender and family roles, for example, so their wives will mind the kids while they build new boats. And are the real innovators interested in dinghies at all? If they are interested in the leading edge of windpowered design, wouldn't they be out there on foiling kiteboards?

The deeper I have dug into the history of the sport, the fewer examples I can find of people being really conservative, and the more examples I can find of people making intelligent, reasoned and well-informed choices. As you note, that leads to many people ignoring new classes and sailing the established ones, for good reasons.

A lot of the time, the thinking seems to be shallow and circular; "why did people not buy type X? Because they are conservative. How do we know they are conservative? Because they did not buy type X".

Speed matters, but it isn't everything.

If I'm going out jsut to sail for fun, give me the fastest thing I can cope with.

If I'm going out to race, give me something that allows me to actually race against the other boats, not a clock and a spreadsheet.

At its best, in the right conditions the 400 can meet both those purposes. Other times, not so.

After a week of pure tactics and tidal knowledge in something weighing over a ton, blasting down waves in a fast dinghy is fun.This is sport, we do it for fun, and there's probably more future in it if it's fun and offers a few thrills to the people who aren't winning the racing. There's not much reward or satisfaction in coming last in race that is slow and all about tactics and tides.

Maybe if organised racing in faster watercraft was on offer within cycling distance of my house, I'd get involved, but the kites and boards rarely race. And I'm too old for it to be accessible to me.

Likewise foiling boats at present don't offer most people good racing. There is a cost barrier. There is only a small pool of people to race against. The practicality issues also keep the pool small.

Also there is the perception of speed. 10knots in a Laser on a short course in waves can feel quite hectic, 10 knots in a big yacht can be quite dull. 10 knots in a cat is nothing.