So, What exactly are we loosing without an Olympic catamaran?

We can't argue that the Tornado Olympic Class has been a marketing triumph for catamaran racing. The marketing model which leverages Olympic sailing seems to be pretty lame.

I will argue that the sport is going to be better off with strong grass roots support in local fleets of F18's and A class's. (The Hobie 16 serves as a great entry level to world class level of competition. The pinnacle of the sport will be the F18 and A class world championships. Those events are where the sailors that we will aspire to emulate develop their reps.

Our sport will be better because we will be able to actually measure our performance against the pros in the big regattas and this will drive interest. The Tornado Olympic Circuit evolved so that the elite US sailors don't actually compete in the USA. For example, How many US catamaran sailors can say they raced against Johnny and Charlie in the last 12 years? (not counting Charlie's A class sailing).

I think the lesson to be learned is that we cannot let the gap between the rank and file catamaran racer and the elite Olympic sailor grow as large as it has.