Well, as Jake and others have said, this discussion is not really relevant as far as beach cat sailing in the United States.

But obviously, there is interest in the subject, considering the number of posts on this thread.

It seems like the big problem is defining what is a "professional," and ISAF does not do a very good of defining that with their three sailor classifications. Thus, their extensive FAQ's, that try to cover all the questions about what is and is not a professional and who is in which category, still do not answer all the questions.

I can only think of a very few cat sailors in the U.S. who might be Class 3 professionals.

I can think of many, many people who would be Class 2 professionals, according to the ISAF guidelines. The way I read it, that would include people who:

Design boats, build boats, sell boats,

Design sails, build sails, sell sails,

Design masts, build masts, sell masts,

Design blocks and other rigging that can improve performance on cats,

Put on seminars to improve race-training skills,

Write books or produce videos regarding race-training,

Publish sailing magazines that have articles about racing,

Someone who just writes an article for a sailing magazine about how to tune your particular boat better for racing, if he/she gets paid for writing that article.

People who run sailing schools that teach people about racing,

Someone who gets paid for coaching a sailboat racing team for a high school or a yacht club.

And I'm sure there are more.

And, yes, based on some of that, both Rick and I would probably be considered "professionals." I'm so flattered. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Now if I can just get somebody to actually pay me money to sail their boat for them, I can move up to Class 3! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Of course, my sister is a MUCH better sailor, but she is totally amateur, because she does not make any money from the sailing industry. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />