Let the flames begin but I have to pull out the stops on this thread.

Much (not all) of today's teens and young men have more diversions and an inclination toward "smaller sports" and less ambition to aquire a catamaran than previous generations.

Among the ones that ARE participating in a sport, the equipment is cheaper and more portable than a boat: wakeboard, surfboard, bicycle, skateboard, kneeboard, boogie board (did I mention all the boards?), joystick games.

An incredible portion of todays younger people are too fat to hoist themselves onto a boat.

If it requires reading a book the majority of today's youth are just plain turned-off by that fact.

Today, lotsa teens and twenty-somethings continue to live in Mom's nest as long as they can. There is no longer a stigma attached to staying with Mummy. They're not the type to get their own crib much less a boat and vehicle to haul it around.

I have umpteen neices and nephews. The number of them that would get on a beach cat in a heartbeat can be counted on my fingers with both hands amputated. (Mysterious to me but somehow understandable to their Mom's.)

It's sad but true that, under 30 and into the 30's, young people with access to water that can float a boat are more interested in a less strenuous and hassle-free lifestyle than it takes to support a sailboat of any type.

I don't paint the whole population under forty but a disturbingly number of today's young americans are leading a "maggot lifestyle": plump, white, duh, and sheltered. Maggots don't sail.

From a boomer's perspective I have to wonder if the cool of a multihull is viewed as a kind of geek thing these days.