Wow. I've been away form the discussion list for a while. Nice to see a bit of "action"! I should take the opportunity to start in a few other contentious topics.
A number of good points here, however I'm disappointed to see a lot of anonymous negative posts. Have the balls to put your name on the post! It will carry much more weight (no pun intended)
Unfortunately I don't see many people from the SA organization committee in here sticking up for their decision, so I'll post my thoughts in response to comments:
And what happens if it's voted out - does the NOR get changed, or will the hull weighing just automatically not apply ??
It is my understanding that the States vote overwhelmingly against weighting boats, however it should be made clear that this is only a "guide". The race organizer always has the right to measure any aspect of any boat at any time. It's part of the RRS. Weighing boats at Nationals is something that's quite common in other classes. As pointed out by locknload, weight is easy to measure and has a large potential effect on performance and hence I can see valid reasons why the SA organizing committee may have made this decision.
Besides wating a day of competitors holidays, exactly what beenefit does this achieve?
That's probably going a bit far. Boat weighing will only add a few extra minutes to the set of steps we all need to take at registration. Don't forget the class already has its strange and annoying measurement peculiarities. Why do we need to have our foils measures every year? I know they spend a lot of time in the water but my centerboard has never sprouted roots and grown. Measuring foils (that have already been measured) every year IMHO is just as strange and time consuming. At least weighting boats is quick as easy. Measuring a set of foils correctly is not.... taper checks over all edges, fiddly radius measurements, thickness checks over the whole surface... I know it's hard because my foils don't measure (radius problem) and they have pass nationals measurement checks without question three years running! Every year I shake my head and wonder why we bother. At least it's pretty hard to stuff up reading a number off a set of scales

(Oh. BTW I'll make sure it's fixed for this year

)
Will this be a confidential procedure or do all competitors get to see the weights?
I'm sure the SA organizing committee has considered this. The Sabre class is different from most. There is a large percentage, if not a majority of amateur-built wooden boats, many of which will be overweight. It would not be much fun to rub this fact into sailor's faces - negative feedback, resale problems, etc. I've competed at a number of sailing events with complex pre-measurement and weighting is usually confidential and not recorded. You simply get a tick (green light) and move onto the next station.
SA boats get weighed prior to the event
I've heard a bit of discussion on this one around the traps (in between talk about the moon landing, Roswell and 9/11). I'm sure this is just a pragmatic move by the SA organizing committee to cut down work on the day (however I agree it's probably not a very well thought out move from a PR perspective). Let's have a bit of faith.
All in all I think we should see the positive side. It takes a lot of hard work and energy to organize the Nationals for one of Australia's largest classes. If the SA committee has the energy to tackle low-priority tasks like this, then I'm excited to see what they have in store for us in other areas. The measurement day can be a pain but it also can be fun. It's a great way of forcing everyone to spend a day catching up with all the sailors they haven't seen for a year - measurement in between a beer at the bar. That's what Sabre sailing is about.
Chris
Espresso 1778
[edit: someone PM'ed me and asked if this post means I support weight measurement at the nationals. The answer is no. I'm for even less measurement! My point is this issue is not a big deal and I'm putting it into perspective.]