My two cents...maybe 1 1/2 cents... Look in the mirror. I have gone to US Sailing meetings for almost 20 years. I was a local Hobie Fleet commodore, Yacht Club Commodore, Florida Sailing association Commodore, race committee everything on the multihull committees at US Sailing etc. At any US Sailing meeting you could put all of the multihull attendees at one dinner table. Associations need money to run and most importantly volunteers. US Sailing does not get much from the multihull sailors. Neither do Yacht Clubs for that matter. Put your money where your mouth is...ring a bell? The mono put in lots of money and time. Plenty of volunteers. We have a very few who do spend a lot of money and time, John Williams (thanks by the way) to name one. Were we represented? Yes, even on the elite board of US Sailing was a Hobie Cat dealer and that person was not even in our camp. Now, I could point fingers at the Olympic multihull sailors themselves..are they on committees at US Sailing? They got the money. (But it was not much money, they will say) The problem really is not so much the money as the people, your time(in case you havenot noticed, is very expensive). Whether we are talking the Yacht Club level, the race committee level or the US Sailing level, cat sailors suck at volunteering. When my local Hobie Fleet was doing well, I wanted them to join me at the local Sailing Club and get with the progam. No, they had the beach, they do not need to join a Club. You know freedom ,no strings..just sail...Well the local Fleet is dead as far as Hobie Cat is concerned, the sailors long gone. Guess what, more monohulls sailors carry the water than we do. Also the real issue for them (big heavy keel boats) is they are dying. They are fighting for their lives. Catamarans are popular we are not dying.
So you want to have your own Association? Great! Who is going to run it? Start charging money, getting volunteers to represent different areas, have meetings. Spend money etc. Then of course, that Association won't represent me. Yeah, we want to round to port or whatever the variation of the day is... it will be a success or failure based on the volunteers who put in the time and energy to make it successful. I can't wait to see the sign up list. You have two choices, work on the current wheel or re-invent a new one. Eitherway, you better look in the mirror to see who needs to do the work if it going to be successful. Because even on this board, most haven't even sent in their money, let alone done anything. Yep, whatever the solution, it is going to take you. Until then, ranting on a computer is just like the fantasy games. (but it feels good anyway)
