QUESTION: What are the advantages of heavy woven roving glass laminate construction as opposed to light weight high tech fabric construction?
ANSWER: For offshore sailing reliability, weight savings is not a top priority. A very solid heavy woven roving panel is a proven, time tested construction material.  Bending strength and stiffness go up dramatically with panel thickness. A heavy woven roving glass laminate create a thicker panel which creates a much stronger hull. Just bang the hull of a LRC SEries yacht, and compare it to others. Common sense will tell you the difference in strength.

Heavy Woven Roving Glass Laminate Advantage

Knitted High Tech Fabrics vs. Caliber Heavy Duty Laminates
Results in a thinner, lighter laminate   Results in a thicker, heavier laminate
 
Apply Equal Weight
 
More flexing with a substantially lower breaking point   Less flexing with a substantially higher breaking point