Pat, I totally agree with your posts on this thread. It is not about the boat.
Furthermore, I have always said that if you want your kids to get involved in sailing, you get them into a yacht club program in the monohulls -- Optis, 420's, Lasers, etc. A club that has club fleets, so you don't have to buy them a boat unless you go on the racing circuit.
Personally, I am totally incapable of understanding why it makes a difference to you guys whether a kid is sailing on one hull or two. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Sailing comes first. Racing comes second. Ultimate choice of boat should be a distant third.
It is like exposing your child to various aspects of art or dance or music. Just because you prefer to play the guitar doesn't mean your kid has to play guitar -- he might prefer the tuba. You don't buy an instrument for him until you know what he enjoys.
The point is that you should expose your children to sailing -- on various types of boats -- and just hope that they will like to sail, period. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I agree with Mary and Pat here too. The best way to get kids into sailing is give them access to boats that their parents don't have to buy. There is already a pretty decent network of optis and lasers that include programs and people to train the kids the basics of sailing. We're talking here about doing what we multihullers typically do in trying to buck the system and do our own thing - which is why we still have some of the reputation we do.
This is a lot like a musical instrument rental program if your kid wants to join the band. Most places offer it as a way for parents to get the kids into it cheaply while the kids sort out whether or not it's a hobby that will stick.
So you want kids sailing but you want them sailing multihulls? IMHO, the best thing you can do is to get the kids to the club into the youth program and while they're racing go racing in your multihull. It won't take them long (the entire fleet actually) to recognize the speed of the catamaran and they'll surely recognize it as a pinnacle of achievement to be able to race on those.
So the keys as I see them are: Get yourselves and our kids into Sailing Clubs and their youth programs and get multihulls out at the same clubs participating and contributing.
