I got your drift now. I never could understand the philosophy or psychology of big money in some of the sports today. I can understand Nascar (though I'm not a fan) and TDF (still not a fan), but there are several others that I won't pay $1 to watch.
Be that as it may, as in other sports, the cat builders might have to start diverting some revenues into some form of advertising to get more people at least interested in cat sailing. In my 26 years of living in the US, I can't recall seeing one cat builder advertising catamarans anywhere in mass media. Sea Ray created their own program "Port-o-Call", which aired on the Water Channel. And Larson made a commercial "Great American Boater" look like a TV program. I cannot even find the Hobie dealer at the boat show, and if I do, there are no catamarans there.
So in my opinion, the cat builders will have to take part of the blame for the inability to generate sponsorships. Without advertising, I doubt very much there are going to be increasing numbers of catamaran enthusiasts, racing or recreational, to increase the popularity of the sport ... at least in the US. There are just going to be us trading up and/or buying new ones when the current ones get old.
Last edited by Bajan_Bum; 07/20/09 03:33 PM.