Great ideas coming through on this thread!! I guess for us here on the middle east coast (US) it comes down to #1 Exposure, #2 Mast Up Storage and #3 Availability. We have gone from one boat last year (thanks Constantine) to 4 boats this year thanks to the Alter Cup deal (availability). We are currently located mast up with the open class cat fleet here and that gets us into the mix with our weekly races. We are hoping to get accepted into a one design club for next year where the boats will be exposed to a number of different mono and multi sailors and more racing on a broader scale. We're very lucky to have two mast up clubs for cats in this area where pressure from developement is always high. The F16 pretty much sells itself especially when people can see them and get rides etc. What we will need this coming season in order to grow will be platforms. We went through this with the A Cats starting 5 or so years ago (thanks Chris & Tony). It was not unusual at all to go to hell and back to pick up a boat and thanks to Tony for cobbling broken boats back together. Now we have 16 or so at the club. I'm hoping that we can grow the F16 class here from 4 to 6 boats next year. If we keep pushing, it will happen. Thanks for all the comments. Ed