Most yacht clubs don't support cat fleets now. I don't see any change on their part if a new cat is ISAF or not. They already have well established fleets in other classes.

Most cat sailors don't belong to yacht clubs.!

So, Why would we expect them to support cat fleets for juniors?

Seems to me, either we join clubs, invest our time and money and build a complimentary program to the existing junior programs.

OR we continue to run our own programs at regattas like the Hobie 16 class is doing.

Both are hard work and require a lot of effort.

Mark

In the UK, (I assume when you say "Yacht clubs", you mean "Sailing Clubs" too) we have to me a member of a club to race.

Hi Scooby.
I don't think the majority of active cat racers in the us belong to a club with a facility. The boats sit on a beach or in your back yard and you travel to events. We don't have much contact with dinghy racers or junior programs. The majority of the weekend racing occurs within a 100 mile drive in cat only events. There are just four or 5 really active catamaran clubs with mast up facilites between New York City and Washington DC. Two of these clubs are strictly catamaran only clubs with minimal facilities. Everyone else belong to paper clubs. I don't believe that anyone uses cats in their junior programs (if they have a junior program)

Gulfport Yacht Club in Gulfport,FL (St. Pete) is a mast up facility that has pretty much been taken over by cat sailors. There is probably a 10 to 1 ratio of cats to monohulls. We have races every other week spring through fall and have hosted several national championships. I feel that we are very lucky to have such a yacht club available and I continue to be a member and support it even though I moved to Safety Harbor a few years ago. We also have the Tampa Bay Catsailors, which does not have any facilities but is very active in the area, hosting races and social events.
I am sure there are a lot of smaller, inactive yacht clubs out there that are almost dead that would probably love to have a bunch of new members come in and revitalize the club - even if they are cat sailors

Gulfport is also hosting the Area D Eliminations in November 2006 (thanks, Seth and Gordie!). Nice place and great people.

There have been many catsailors that joined Pensacola Beach Yacht Club in the past two years - joined for the cheap beer, regatta support (we don't have to lose a team or two to race management any more!) and the club house. Every YC I know of down here is welcoming multihulls. Our club is hosting the Area Ds this November and the Alter Cup in 2006.

What kind of sailors joined up? Mark Smith, Kirk Newkirk, Glenn Holmes, Don Cook, Glen Marsh... big cats, little cats, doesn't matter. I see it as a growing trend, and putting a multihull into the existing youth sailing and education program is likely in the future given the growing number of multihull members. The Wave? Probably!