It finally occured to me last weekend, as I was pulling myself on board for the 3rd time during the Tradewinds Regatta; This is why some people will never sail cats!

So there is always going to be a Monohull mentality, they don't all care about all out speed, but they do care about staying on the boat, right side up! Especially up in places where the water is COLD even in July, like Newport and Boston.

There will always be a (much larger) crowd of Yacht Club Deck Sailors who would rather walk around the club swirling their martinis and "Talking a good race" rather than actually out there doing it. Those are the guys who need the security of a 5,000lb. keel under them and only go out if it's blowing less than 20. They can say, "Look at my pretty yacht, isn't she lovely!" from the safety of the Yacht Club. We cat speed freaks will never convince them that faster is funner.

As to the America's Cup, that is about MONEY. Money for Designers, Builders, Sailmakers, Crew, Skippers, Owners, etc. not really about speed or they'd be doing it on Ice Boats! The entire Monohull Marine Industry wants it to be on monohulls, thus it will always be so. There is no money to be made from speed, especially if you can build a lighter, faster boat at less than half the cost of a typical AC leaner and only need two sails and 5 crew on it. The AC is more like a circus, they need lots of clowns or the show isn't that good. It's about money, not speed.

Can someone put up that link to the Gunbaot 62 cruising cat smoking the R/P 80' racing mono? Now that was funny!