Hi Mark -

I agree that there have certainly been other justifications and rationales offered up in the last year regarding how decisions were made on this issue. However, at the very core, the center, the Genesis, this began with one or two individuals looking at the respective fleets and estimating the US chances of winning medals. If you think, as I do, that the reasoning was flawed, then everything that follows is irrelevant. Additional discussion regarding fundraising has been taking place, of course, though I feel it is a red herring - the premise that keelboaters will only donate to the Olympics if there is a keelboat event and that multihull sailors do not donate is (I'm sorry to be blunt) silly. If fundraisers don't capitalize on our most recent medal wins when appealing for donations, then they are missing an opportunity. Further, they now have the protracted "keelboat v. multihull" conflict to resolve - no matter who wins, someone loses and the motivations are now percieved to be something less than altruistic with regard to the health of the sport. That becomes particularly problematic during a period of stated "focus on building membership."

Which brings us to a poll like this one. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />