When the Laser was fist chosen I thought, "You have got to be Sh!tt!ng ME! It's too slow, it's too simple, What The Fark are they thinking??!!"

But the more I thought about it, I realized with a Laser, you cannot go out and -buy- speed, you have to earn it, with millions of sit-ups . Being that all Lasers go about the same max speed upwind, you have to have excellent tactics and strategy, or you will be in the back row pretty quickly, with no way to recover.

There is boat handling skill involved too, obviously. Keeping it right side up going downwind and getting that thing to move upwind in big wind and waves is an art and not for the un-fit. But being as simple as it is, it does level the playing field equipment wise and put the onus on the skipper/athlete to win the races.

The only widely used catamaran that shares the same -simpleness- as the Laser, is the Hobie 16. I can see where the boat selection committee might choose that.

You and I might want to see the latest, greatest, full wing sail, curved daggers, 20 foot, carbon fiber rocket ship, but really, how many teams, world wide, can play at that level?

But a Mixed Multi? Well, the Hobie 16's have been doing that for years.