I work in the recreation field, one disturbing trend seen in the industry is a sharp decline in casual recreation participation i.e. a group of kids from the neighborhood getting together and playing a pick-up game of football, soccer, baseball etc. The primary emphasis is falling towards organized youth sports. While this is not necessarily all bad, it does restrict a childs casual and unstructured interaction with his/her peers. So how does this relate to developing a catamaran that would be marketed to kids coming out of opti fleets??

Well when was the last time you saw kids at your local sailing venue sailing just for fun, not being involved in a regatta, or structured sailing program? While there are kids that certainly do this, the numbers are just not great. At the club I sail out of, on the weekends, opti/laser/420 coached practices will draw 50+ boats out on the water, but take away the strucure, and there may be 1 or 2 of the more dedicated High School sailors and that is all.

Until a fleet of youth catamarans can be established and the concept bought into by local sailing organizations, there will be a lot of difficulty creating a market for this boat.

That all being said, I think it's a great idea, but an uphill battle to create. The first step is to expose as many kids as possible to catamarans. Get those kids out of the opti's for a couple hours for a ride. More often than not they will be hooked, and looking for more!