I don't see any harm in building and targeting these boats towards kids. And I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be able to handle them. The speed of these cats is significantly lower than kids in the age group we are discussing already achieve on their skateboats and bikes and crashing a boat will have a far softer landing.

I also agree that a rotomoulded boat would be great, however, the cost of tooling up for one of these is very high and would require someone to take a serious punt.

I have had a few discussions "offline" with people about my f12 stuff I did earlier this year and I'm currently working up a price for a pre-cut plywood kit. What I would like is feedback from interested parties on a couple of design ideas with the target audiance of YOUNG kids in mind.

1. Centreboards. The dinghies I was tought to sail on (age 8) had them, why shouldn't a cat for the same age group.

2. Sail controls. Training dinghies usually have Vang, and mainsheet with cunningham and outhaul tied off. Is this ok on a training cat?

3. Free standing or stayed mast. The boats I learnt to sail on were a mixture of both and I believe the opti has stays. Given that a stayed mast will be lighter and therefor more likely to be able to be stepped by the young sailor which option is better?

4. Reefing. A lot of modern youth trainers can be de-powered by wrapping the sail around the mast. Do people like this idea and would wrapping around the boom be a suitable alternative if the mast was stayed? (would mean having a traveller and main rather than a main and vang).

5. Floats on mast. In an earlier discussion Phill suggested that having a float on the mast was a bad idea as it meant the boat may blow away from kids. I'm tempted to agree, what does everyone else think.

I'd also welcome any other feedback.

Note. these questions are with a sub 12 year sailor in mind and I'm not looking for ideas on boats targeted towards other markets.

edit:

Phill posted while I was typing and I agree with him on pretty much everything in his post.