I can only speak for what I have seen in the past 14 years here in Florida but it has been my observation that people in close geographic proximity will gravitate towards the same type of boats, in order to achieve critical mass and have enough of one type to form a solid fleet for racing.

In the days before time it was the Hobie 16's. But there were few other options, so "Everyone" raced a Hobie 16. But later the Hobie 18's, the Nacra 6.0's and Hobie 20's came along, then the Inter 20's introduced us to spinnaker-cat bouy racing, the F18's developed and now the F16's. As more people joined in there was demand for slight variations in design to accomodate personal taste, witness the rebirth of the A class, and the Wave class is growing too.

Many of these boats are being raced by the exact same people who started a long time ago on Hobie 16's, but some, like myself, are converts from Mono's or just plain new to the sport. Like I tell new people who want to get into the sport, "Find a club near you that has a good racing program, find out what they are racing, buy a used one, and go learn to race it."

The "type" of boat is not important and subject to change about every 5-10 years anyway, so you might as well buy what has a decent enough fleet size to make the racing interesting, as long as it suits your budget and crew requirements.

Here in the States, the big guys race the I20's, the mediums race the F18's and us smaller people or part time Uni racers sail F16's or A cats. I have noticed that in other countries, there are much more "Homebuits". The only homebuilds we see here in the States are the A cats.

If I had the budget I'd have one of each, and a 60' racing tri, and a big Gunboat cat to live on! But given my budget and crew (or lack thereof), I'm very happy with the F16 fleet that has now developed in Florida.

I think there is no "One World-One Cat" solution with a perfect cat that suits everyone, world wide. Local economics, cultures, fleets, used boat availability, etc. will determine what is going to be raced in any given area and that won't be the same, world over, it's not even the same from one area of the States to the next.

I'm just glad we speak the same "Cat Language" the world over, and thankful Rick and Mary have provided a free web-board for us to keep in touch! Fast is fun and that's the same, world wide.