My opinion?

Hobie Cat USA had little or no input on what Hobie Cat France submitted. I don't recall any input being given. I don't know if the IHCA had any real input either. I think that this "youth boat" direction that ISAF is going towards is too technical for the US market (at least) and likely is more elite and excludes more sailors than it should. We are trying to generate interest in sailing (cat sailing) here. To do that, we have been trying to make cat sailing more accessible to more people. ISAF, by making the "youth" boat so technical, I think will actually turn people off.

An example of this (negative) impact of the technical progression can be found in the short history of sailboarding. When sailboarding was simple and fun, there was TONS of interest. When it got technical and performance oriented it took on the appearance of a difficult-to-learn sport and discouraged entry-level people. Sailboarding is virtually a dead sport to the masses now.

I personally think that if the MAX had gotten the nod, we would be in the same situation. Too expensive and too technical for the youth sailors we have now. Maybe that could change over time, but we would have to step back a bit and create, yet another, level... simpler youth boat to feed into the MAX. I guess our problem here is that we just don't have that progression... yet.

This is, of course, assuming that what ISAF does here has ANY bearing on anything the rest of us should do to promote youth sailing in general. For example... what impact does the Tornado Olympic class have on cat sailing? By this I mean what does it do in a positive or negative way to promote cat sailing or sailing for that matter? Very little. There is very little trickle down to the actual masses. They may not even know it exists. So, I think what ever ISAF chooses here for a youth boat will have little to do with actually promoting (or hurting) our sport.