As John stated, this development is troubling. It confirms that US Sailing is still not in touch with mainstream sailing in this country. It's hard to comprehend why this will not or has not changed. It looks like the boardsailing community is being treated the same and these sailors are certainly the most athletic of all the Olympic classes.

There is still an ignorance or lack of acceptance within the traditional yacht club infrastructure in this country in regards to how multihull sailing continues to evolve and get better while remaining very popular with a large group of sailors in this country. The boats and equipment have improved so much and this development has attracted many dinghy and keelboat sailors over to the "dark side" (myself included).

At my yacht club, I have started racing my Corsair trimaran in club PHRF races. We are the only multihull and we've had no problem blending in with the fleet on the starting line. Even though we finish far ahead of the lead mines, I still get comments after races about how we "don't go downwind" (because we jibe downwind and sail hotter angles) or don't go upwind well (even though we always sail within 5 degrees of the highest pointing lead mine). It's like they are in denial and just can't accept what their eyes see.

I believe that type of attitude is pervasive in the upper leadership of US Sailing. They continue to make decisions that seem to defy logic.

Bob Hodges
A-Class USA 230