First off, Wouter does not have his own kids so, parents, you all know he cannot just "get it" about kids. No insult intended, Wout, but you simply can't. Neither could I until at age 48 I had a son. Now Jack's seven and he's sailed with me a lot. I bought him an Opti because, well, I guessed that's how it's supposed to be done.

But we live in a beach town, beach cats drag racing to little islands, stopping at restaurants for a bite, ducking bridges and across shoals, simply playing like 7 year olds should. There is very little Opti racing and not until age 10. Jack's Opti gets little use.

Then I saw an ad for a used Hobie Bravo. We went and looked at it and WHAM! He is HOOKED! He thinks it is the coolest looking boat on earth and it is (but by a completely different mindset than Wouter and most glass cat racers). Slow? Heavy? No boom? No sail shape? All true and at age 7 he does not care one bit. The hope of beiing solo a catamaran captain is all he thinks about. What I want to teach him is sailing independence and a never ending need to be on the water. The Bravo seems to do that for him. Being rotomolded, he can't hurt it on oyster bars, it will carry all his pals, it's so stable he can stand and fish, and he should keep up with and maybe beat the large Sunfish fleet here.

Bravo, Bravo! Jack chose the boat, not me. It's like having a BMX bike but on the water. He snears at the Opti and tells me it's just a slow bathtub...and he's right. Do i want a competitive racer snob or a tan little beach rat? I'll take the swaggering, sandy beach rat kid any day! And 7 years from now he'll kicking butt in some faster cat, I hope.

Can anyone else suggest a starter boat for 7-10 year olds that gets them excited?