Both spins and foils have been put on optis... I will leave the google searching to you.

I very much agree with the point Jay made above- a lot of the skills that lead to a successful mulithull sailor are by no means multihull specific.

In general, I think the US does a pretty good job at developing some of the more fundamental racing skills- starts, boathandling, fleet management, strategy, etc. It is in the transition to boatspeed-type boats where we seem to struggle. With that in mind, moving sailors through a jr. sailing to performance pathway is important.

I think there is a role for both local clubs, and regional training in this pathway. I see the local clubs focusing on younger sailors in optis or Bics, 420s, Lasers, and other "typical" jr. sailing boats. The focus of yacht club programs should be to develop the fundamentals, and more importantly plant a love of the sport in young sailors. I don't see the average yacht club program developing a i420/29er/F16 program if for no other reason than the boats are too expensive for a club-owned fleet... it's hard to get past that reality.

Where the next step can de handled is with regionalized high performance teams. Theses teams should focus on developing motivated young sailors along the path to olympic classes. The USDT is a great start, but the travel requirements still place a heavy financial burden on families. Having a Regional development team could increase the pool of Olympic class sailors, and reduce travel costs. I could see a New England team practicing in Newport, a Midwest team in Chicago, etc. Ensuring each regional team has excellent coaching is a must- and US Sailing should play a role here. It might even be possible to work with existing programs like Lisot or FAST to make this happen.

The top sailors from the regional teams then move on to the US Sailing Development Team, and then hopefully on to the US Sailing Team Sperry Topsider.... the more established the path the better.

As far as the olympic multihull is concerned, we need to do everything possible to make the multi an option for top young sailors, just like any other class. Right now, I don't see the top youth sailors in the country (opti national team members, youth champs winners, all americans, etc.) considering sailing multis- that needs to change.