Do we have to go through this nonsense again? Despite the first post's attempt to draw this into a pointless F16 vs SL16 debate, I had hoped we could discuss something constructive on this thread, specifically, how do we get more youth sailors interested in cat sailing?

Whenever I see youth monohull opens such as the Oppies or the 29ers I see that there is no shortage of cash being invested in youth sailing. How do we get some of that and grow cat sailing as a whole?

Over the summer I took a young guy out on my fad boat. He'd sailed plenty of fast monohulls, and indeed some cats (no kite). Got him out the trap with the kite up and he suddenly understood what cat sailing was about. Cats should be the perfect boats for adrenaline-powered teenagers, but instead they're spending their time on wobbly half-boats.

But why bother? Let's just have another my-class-is-better-than-yours s**t-slinging contest. It is a whole week since we last did it.

Paul