I don't really know the history of the weight limit, but the current 880 limit is just slightly below 5x the median weight of an adult male (and probably was at the median when it was enacted). Wherever you set the limit, most boats are going to have to look around a little to find that 5th person that gets them in the right range.

I prefer the lower limit because:

a) 6 people on an Express 27 is a crowd b) 1000 pounds on the rail will put more strain on the boat (imagine regularly carrying the #1 up to 17 or 18 knots)

That said, I think that small drivers do have a bit of an advantage and can feel Larry's pain. However, driver weight is an even bigger factor in many other small light keelboat classes (and virtually every dinghy class). I'm not sure that's its worth complicating things significantly in order to try balance out the advantage.

:: Please correct me if I am in error, but wasn't the
:: original crew weight 1000#? And was this not designated
:: by the designer himself? Is it is too simple to go back
:: to the original weight limit before other interests were
:: involved and caused it to change to 880#? I have been
:: told by more than one person that the change to 880# was
:: due to the complaints that smaller crew were not able to
:: get on crews. If, in fact, true that would mean it was a
:: political change and not mechanically nor structurally
:: motivated or, perhaps, even needed.
::
:: I agree with Larry and Mike that it is very difficult to
:: find the balance at the current weight limit. I had to
:: eliminate one of my crew to make weight this last
:: Nationals and boy did we pay for it.
::
:: I stayed out of the discussion as you were all doing
:: such a wonderful job of covering the points, but when
:: someone said that there were only a few concerned
:: (complaining) I had to chime in. I am for a change back
:: to the original weight limit of 1000#.