Pat,

I think your comments are good and don't think there is any one thing that caused the decline of cat sailing. I think it will be hard for the HCA to ever get a foot hold on having large regattas on the local level again(southeast). I also think it will hurt cat sailing in general with Hobie only regattas on a local level. Why can't the manufactures have there own nationals and championships and let the local regattas be run with mixed fleets? When I bought my first H16 (1985) it was because some one took me out on their boat and got me hooked. If Hobie's are not sailing at local regattas how are you going to get people hooked? It is up to the sailors sailing their boats to help grow their class and get their class out sailing. Most of or regattas are at yacht clubs (southeast) and I can say the mono hull sailors sure do make comments about the spin boats like "those boats sure are fast", "I did not realize the cats could point so well", " I thought the cats would only reach".When catamarans are sailing with the mono hulls we are getting noticed and we may get some sailors to come over. Having a Hobie only regatta does not get you much exposure to new sailors and makes it hard to grow your class. If I could wave my magic wand the manufactures would have their nationals and regional championships and the local regattas and distance races would be split up in OD starts and the odd boats would have to race open. The OD fleets should work on their own class to get their numbers up and sailors coming to the regattas. Just my opinion.