I think you are very much on target Nick. But unfortunately, here in America, Sailing is seen as some weird pussy sport for the Elite, rich, pussys who can't play football or baseball.

Every time I mention it to the guys I fly with, they say, "I'll bet that's expensive..." And our access to good water is somewhat limited to yacht clubs, since most of our public beaches do NOT allow sailboats or wind surfers or kites to launch with swimmers in the area. Public Safety, Injuries, Lawsuits and all that.

And we have a simple alternative available at most beach locations, Jet Ski rentals. I hate them, but the public loves them. Fast, zero learning curve, great for a quick 30 minutes of "Fun" jumping over waves. Compare that to leaning how to sail when the wind is too light, or too strong, or the waves are too big, etc, etc, etc. and you can see why Americans buy Jet Ski's instead of sailboats.

And that's the ones who actually get off the couch and go to the beach. Quite a few Dads are sitting on the couch every Sunday, watching NASCAR, or Football, or whatever other sport is on TV on Sunday. You know that 60% of Americans are overweight and 30% are obese, and our kids are getting that way too. They don't want to go out and play when they can get on the internet and Facebook all day.

I think we shuould get Tiger Woods into sailing, he lives in Orlando part of the year. But I'll bet his big money contract fobids it, as he might injure his knee again or something.

The bottom line (pun intended) is that there is just not much -money- to be made with sailing. It doesn't bring in the advertising revenue that the Daytona 500 does because the public doesn't understand it, or watch it on TV. No advertising means no TV visability means no notice by most of the public, means no growth.

I know Gary Jobson has been trying for many years to increase the TV visability of sailing on ESPN, etc. I hope he can continue to push ESPN Producers to show more sailing and get some big money sponsors to pony up some money for more TV coverage of events.

Obama is pushing for a new "Green" economy, Sailing would fit right in, all we have to do is figure out how to present it to the public in a way that makes people want to try it. Magazine pictures of 10 guys sitting on the rail of a Grand Prix 50 footer is not the way. We need to push the bottom end, the Opti's, Lasers, Hobie 16's, etc. People see those as more affordable, entry level and might try that. Get Tiger on a Hobie 16 with his hot wife, that would get some golfers thinking about it!