So in summary.... or what I read into this thread

1) the Opti has it right and a good starter boat for all

2) After the Opti kids tend to go into monohulls, due to peer pressure, parents or scholarships

3) Cat classes exist above the laser 4.7 and 420 range, thus a 'new' cat has to be designed to fill this gap.

4) Not enough kids go into cats see 2 and 3

5) Attitude towards cats by MNAs and Parents

6) Perception is that running a Cat is expensive, (not sure if thats just a UK thing or not)

7) Lack of support by MNA for a cat programme

So IMHO rather than having a US cat approach to ISAF and a UK one ALL cat sailors should unite and come up with a unified approach