Look out not within. Sailing is in the Olympics because out side of the US it does fit the public interest criteria. While not the most popular sport (by far) it is a lot more accepted, watched and covered outside of the US. High profile Sailors in France are treated like rock stars! Believe it or not, until the current world recession, sailing saw growth as a sport on many different levels in nearly every continent except the US. A few Olympic cycles ago I believe sailing was in jeopardy of loosing its Olympic berth but with some good lobbying from ISAF and growth participation in Asia and other no traditional competitive sailing continents it is now a lot more stable. While there is a lot of other sailing away from the Olympics, the Olympics does give good a good measure on how we rate as a sport in genera terms. In fact the Summer Olympics in general is far more popular outside of the US, so may be difficult for Americans to really draw a comparison.

What the US should be doing is have the governing body of the sport take a look at the successful programs outside of the US. The RYA etc and build business models marketing, financial and performance base similar to what has worked with these governing bodies. Going back a decade or two Yachting Australia was a small organization similar to what US sailing is now. Now they are a large professional organization, the professional level and approach from YA have allowed them to attract / demand large corporate backing and together add a lot to the sailing community at all levels.