Personally I think that youths are best trained initially on what ever cat dad has.

Only when they show some noticeable skills and determination to put the many hours of practice in then they shoukd consider purchasing the youth boat.

I think many people are not looking past the ISAF back waters of France and UK. France as a taxation climate that largely stimulates sponsorship money into new boats. UK feels that they have to keep up appearances in the world of sailing. In effect both these nations have considerable budgets. The rest of the world ? It is all mom and pop shelling out the doe to buy junior a youth boat. Overhere in NL, in monohulls, we have the optimist and the splash, both boats are less then halve the cost of the SL16 and they have a very active second hand market. 29-er is non-existant.

It really isn't about some official deciding boat A or B is the next youth boat and then expecting all those parents to knock down your door. It has never been that way in the beach catamaran scene and it won't be that way in the future. I they think they are going to hit big with the SL16 "just like that" then they have another thing coming.


So I think the planning for youth sailors should be top down rather then wrong side up. In effect, kid races with his dad or mom and likes it enough to persue it further. Then an experienced racing crew takes kid of parent hands and show him or her the ropes on any cat this experienced racer has. Kid learns tons about tactics, wind and water conditions and team cooperation. Then when kid is still in the game after a while he can be relatively retrained to the ISAF youth boat of the day while being under a professional coach.

That my friends is the only way to do it in by far the most nations around the world.

It is never about any specific boat, it is all about discovering the kids early enough to have time to train themselfs up to the skill level of the French and Brits before they hit 21 and become senior. To bad there is NO CLASS for SL16 sailors over 21. These younsters have to peak very early in a game that mostly favours older and more experienced crews. Afterall, sailing is only for 10 % a physical sport, the rest is experience, tactics and the ability to read the wind and water conditions.


Besides the F16 - SL16 comparison is just beyond silly; that is in addition to beside the point.

I am thrilled however that F16 was chosen as the benchmark to measure themselfs against. Does hint at something doesn't it.

But I truly feel this is all extremely irrelevant. Thing is to get these youths away from their nintendo's and sailing on whatever boat you can get your hands on. A 12.000 Euro threshold to get the right boat will not help here. And 12.000 Sl16 is not any less an obstacle then a 12.000 F16 or 12.000 F18. It really doesn't make any difference which class is considered. Building an organisation that recognizes talent early and then couples that talent to an experienced racer nearby is key.

Wouter