Bob,

I think a lot of the attitude toward cat sailors has to do with what made catamarans so popular initially. My understanding is that as the catamaran sales exploded it was predominantly non-sailors buying them for recreational purposes. For this reason I believe that there is an enduring stigma that cat sailors are not serious sailors. I think this is going to continue to decline with the publicity of events like the Worrell 1000 (aided by the fact that there are some big time mono sailors entering this year - who will probably getted whooped ) and some of the new high tech cats that are getting a lot of magazine coverage lately.

I've got a friend of mine that has a 'gotta go faster' sailing mentality but in two years I haven't been able to get him on my cat. He's bought two sailboats in that time trying to get faster and is now talking about a 3rd (Henderson SRMax, Viper, and now talking skiff). I'm sure if I got him out there double trapped with the chute up on my 6.0 I'ld convert him...but he's strongly prejudice for no reason even he can explain.

Sail color, for the same reason you don't see car tires with colors other than black (except in very special instances), isn't done because adding color to plastics and rubbers weakens them.