OK so I'm speaking as a 32 year old sailor, who was raised by a family that sailed. I can remember cruising with my grand father at a very young age on the Chesapeake. I sailed solo for the first time on a lake in Michigan on the family's Sunfish when I was 8. I've been sailing keelboats my whole life and I make a living in the sailing industry. Here are some thoughts I've had concerning driving people into sailing, whether cats or monohulls, hell even boards and kites...

1) You have to really WANT to sail (or race) to do it. Its a complex sport that takes a certain level of knowledge and skill to participate. It also takes a certain kind of attitude to push yourself to get better. If you aren't "into" it you won't be into it for long. This I think is the issue with younger folks that has been noted above, that young people these days have short attention with little follow through or commitment to what they are doing, or learning to do.

2) Cost I don't think is as much of an issue as everyone makes out. Hell, people spend $6k on a mountain bike to go to Whistler. People spend $20k on a motorcycle to race at the track. If you WANT to sail you can get into sailing and even racing for a reasonable cost. I started racing on my dads keelboat that cost him $2k. I liked it so I started sailing with other keelboats. If you want to sail it does not have to be more expensive than other sports.

3) Agree time is a huge factor, and probably the biggest detriment to people getting out sailing. IF you CHOOSE to have kids, you are dedicating A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME to raising your children. Don't expect to be able to continue doing everything you did before. People that are <30 and have kids have given up a lot, in terms of time and $. My wife and I don't have kids, and find it pretty easy to afford $ and time to sail. If we had kids, we wouldn't, simple.

4) It is an interesting attitude cat sailors have towards Yacht Clubs. "They don't want us around" is the attitude I generally perceive. But, if you just ask to be around, the YC will gladly welcome cats. I did this for a regatta in April at our local YC, that has never hosted cats, and they are super excited about it. If you ask, you can participate, but don't expect the YC to ask you to participate, its up to you.

I guess my general feeling is that I almost agree with whoever said sailing is about as big as it needs to be. Our culture in the states doesn't lend itself to sailing very well, with the complexity of the sport, and the ever increasing simplicity of the US mind. I also agree that getting people out sailing is the best thing we can do for the sport. When we had our keelboat, we'd take people out all the time. Of course, the % of those people who followed through and began sailing on a regular basis is like 10%. Thats just the fact, not everyone is going to do it. Its a hard sport. So lets just keep pushing how great it is and hopefully more people will start doing it.

I also think the AC has done something for making the sport exciting for more people. Hopefully we will see this in the next few years.