Jeff,

You make a lot of valid points, but implementing them may be tough. As is often the case everyone gets hung up on specific classes and boats, rather than looking at the culture surrounding sailing in the U.S. I am fortunate to live in a hotbed of sailing (Annapolis area), am sitting 20 minutes away from one of the premier Olympic sailing training sites in the country (St. Marys College), and can still count the number of high performance boats in the area without a calculator (surprising since I'm not that great at math). Besides Mark's count of 6 i420's at AYC that I have yet to see (CBYRA still uses C420's during the summer regatta circuit), and the club A-Cat at West River, no yacht club owns what I would consider a moderate performance boat. Both West River and SSA are great supporters of existing fleets (SSA has a bunch of 505's, West River has ~ the largest F16 fleet in the country and one of the few N20 fleets left), but how do you transition that to Olympic results? All the clubs mentioned above support the Opti->Club 420->College program, with no pathway to high performance sailing (some summer with a trap wire and spinnaker in a C420 counts a little). AFAIK, only 1 yacht club in the country introduces ANY high performance sailing at the high school level, and we've seen the results of that program with a top 15 finish at F18 worlds.

How do we break the current cycle? Exposing more kids to fast boats at a young age is a great start, but exposing the parents is also critical. The reality is few have the means to own a quick boat and few still can make it work on the regional regatta circuit. Youth will need help period. Looking at my travel budget+insurance+running costs for next year is making me cringe, I guarantee it is north of 75% of the price of the boat. How do you sustain this at the Olympic level?? Training 3+ days a week, paying for private coaching on weekends and traveling thousands of miles to regattas makes this unsustainable for all but the 1%, or those like JC that beg, borrow and steal to make it happen (aka a lifestyle choice).

The unfortunate reality is the high performance multihull talent pool in my backyard is bigger than most yet still slim enough that traveling is a necessity of getting better. Bringing in a regional coach would be great but how do you pay for it? How do you convince the typical yacht club member to fork over a few bucks for a coach instead of drinking beer one night? This goes for any boat or Olympic campaign. We need grassroots answers to a problem created by the 1%, and unfortunately it may be too late for the 2016 Olympic cycle.