Most catamarans are built for recreational sailing and they will not handle the requirement and wear that professional sailors have. Why should you force profesional sailors to use cheap equipment designed for recreational sailing? It is the cost running a campain for Olympics that should be concidered. If you need to buy a couple of boats until you find a good one that you must rebuild to get it right and then need to replace it after 6 month due to wear, that is expensive!

Take my Hobie 16 as an example. Even though it is not used by professionals it has problems. My boat cracked at the fron pylon after two years of occasional usage due to bad build quality. Later both Hobie carbon rudders cracked and was actually permanently bent and I don't even sail through surf! I have replaced them with german carbon rudders (430 euros each!) and they handle like a dream. The next step is to rebuild the rudder casting to get rid of the slop. To sum it up, even a recreational sailor needs to rebuild the Hobie 16 before you can race with it! Imagine that boat in the Olympics!

Why not have a dedicated olympic catamaran that is designed for professional use, has top quality and will last several years. The only catamaran that meets those requirement right now is the Tornado.

/hakan