Guys you are not going to bump people from the Opti even though the Open Bic is catching the Opti class by surprised with it's popularity. Still many of these classes have been around for a long time and people are perfectly happy with them so why change, what so they can sail a new multihull at a higher price tag. Opti’s or like dinghies are easy to transport and easy to find used, and many many sailing programs have them in their programs. You can’t create a little cat for the price of an opti, oops I guess there is the Hobie Bravo. Kids learn via the Opti, Sabot, El Toro, and now maybe the Open Bic, then they go to the 29er (not as big a class as some report), 420, then to the 49er. Or from the multihull perspective go from the Opti or Open Bic, and then go to the H16 and stay there like so many do. Sorry guys the H16 worlds are awesome and well attended with the youth division, women’s, masters, open class. Heck the H16 class does not even need the Olympics to put on a great world event and has great attendance. The H16 worlds has been going on now for over 30 years. As I have always told people many multihull sailors keep shooting themselves in the foot with their Hobie 16 bashing, etc. One thing that has made Opti’s and like dinghies popular is how the programs are ran, that is like a soccer program for kids. Parents can come and drop their kids off and the kids have a great time with a lot of other kids. So if you can do this with multihulls then you have a winning program, actually we already have a winning program by utilizing the opti programs and then introducing them to the H16. For me its getting the kids sailing via an Opti program and then plug them into the Hobie Class Assoc. That is what I am doing and it works.

And honestly where is the Olympics headed? No sailing in the Olympics is where. It’s only a matter of time before it happens due to cost, etc.