Select to expand quoteAgent nods said..
I had a mate that was a world class sailor.
When he was sailing J24's we was "well built" but the rest of the crew were quite light. this worked well with the weight restrictions, except for the strongest winds - but in heavy conditions the "lightweights" would wear lots of heavy jumpers that miraculous got very wet, thus adding quite a lot of "movable ballast".
Of course it made it hard work for the lightweights so there is a trade off.
That wasn't illegal or secret in the early days of J/24 racing, and it's a reasonable response when the boat your sailing needs more weight than your crew has.
There is now a limit on how heavy your wet clothing can be. It was said to have been created in response to Finn sailors using weight jackets and suffering back injuries.
