Should we care? Yes. Does it matter? No.

I went to the US Sailing meeting, and the Multihull meeting in Newport, this past week end. Talked to the board members etc.

First, the problem with the "National Organizations" and multihull sailing, in a nut shell, it is not them, it is US. By that I mean, multihull sailors should just look in the mirror for all their issues. If no cares at the "National" level, then it is because we do not care at the National level. This is just my opinion as I have been going to US Sailing meetings for about 20 years now, so I have a pretty good feel for what's up. What I see, on the rare occasions when the multihulls (I include myself) do show up, is Hobie vs Tornado vs Nacra vs (name your favorite multihull). There is very little interest in the big picture for multihull sailing, by US. You say you support youth sailing? Well guess what? Art Stevens, is the only one single handedly battling the dark side for youth multhull sailing. If you really want to help, give him a call and a hand. He is trying to put together the youth event right now in California.
Want insight on the recent board issues with the Olympics? Simple really. Did they want to leave out multihulls? No, quite frankly they didn't even think of us. Why, look in the mirror. You/we weren't there, that simple. I am not talking about this last meeting, I am talking about the last several years. Sure a couple of us have been around, we represent a major percentage of sailing? That has never been present.

Now for the big picture, the feeling at the board level is that sailing in general is not long for this World in the Olympics. The Olympic Committee is all about World Political Correctness. They want 100s of Countries represented, and must have equal amount of women. Sailing is not viewed as making their life easier, so they want to get rid of it altogether. The board feels they are fighting a losing battle, multihulls quite frankly were not their main concern. As from their perspective, it did not look like it was ours either.

The future? We as multihull sailors have the brightest future in sailing by far. Our boats are fun to sail! We will continue to grow and enjoy a great sport. I hope when we gather in the future we can move ourselves forward with a little better unity and focus.

To drive my point home regarding our "National Organizations", we act like a minority expecting others to do our work for us. Why? Because we are so deserving? Get real. We are a major sailing faction in the country, however try and find a major faction of us at any "Nation Organization" event. Sorry for the cold water. But stop gripping and start doing. Give Art a call and start helping.