Rick I know you have sailed for many years and I am wondering what your experience has been regarding the reactions of youth or junior level sailors sailing the H14 or Wave. Some have expressed that kids will stick with cat sailing if they sailed the H14 over the Wave due to the thrill factor, what do you think of this, along with kids reactions to both designs.
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<br>Also I must add I have been talking to H14 sailors in Germany and Brazil to name a few and they have expressed that the Wave will never be an international junior cat as it is predominately a US boat, even though a few have been exported. In Brazil the H14 is being built and I know they are trying to get youth sailing going down there and of course they are promoting the H16 as a youth cat.
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<br>Maybe I am looking more at the international level and you are looking at the national level. I know our kids do not do very well in international youth regattas (on the H16) and so I am looking at what will help our kids in International sailing, but then again the real point is to just get them sailing. I know some have told me “but most kids will not racing internationally” and all I can say is that the way we want to continue to go?
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<br>So we have maybe the US promoting the Wave as a youth boat maybe, Europe is promoting the Dragon and H14 (a little battle going on there), and South America and South Africa promoting the H14, and Australia I am not sure even though they produce the H14. Seems to me we all need to come together (if that is possible) and decide on using a boat for the junior level events, once again I am not talking about youth cat because it’s the H16. The problem with the Wave is it is not raced in South American and many other continents (even so we could get it going), the Dragon is to darn expensive for us sailing families with a budget and more than one kid, and H14 is well I don’t know of a real disadvantage even though I am sure you all could come up with some – once again I can get new H14’s shipped to North American either from Brazil or Europe so new boats are available.
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<br>I am not trying to conflict with what you say but I think we all need to come together to determine what direction we need to go and resolve some of these issues. I know for sailors ages 6 – 10 in our area we are using the Sabot or Access Dinghy 2.3. But from the ages of 11 – 16 we need to come down to the choice of a Wave or H14, and I think if we are going to support the Wave we need to figure out if countries like Brazil or South Africa, Germany, etc. are going to fallow suit, so we need to include them. Once again maybe we only want to do this on a national level but somehow I think that would be near sighted approach, maybe.
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<br>I am just talking this out and I am not saying let’s just choose the H14 as that is not my choice. Rick you could post a survey on your web site but I think we really need to send surveys to other countries and organizations and see what happens. You may be way ahead of me on this (which I am sure is the case) so lets keep this effort going, I know my kids are fast approaching the junior level age group and I sure would like to hook them up with correct sailing group or effort, along with the other kids in my area.
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<br>Wouldn’t it be great if we could make joining a sailing junior or youth sailing club/group as easy as signing up for a soccer team and as affordable. I have always said if we could do this then we would be getting somewhere. Cost is such a big factor in preventing kids from getting into sailing! That is one of the things I like about the Sabot (over the Opti) (or Access Dinghy 2.3 for the disAbled) is its so affordable and easy to find used, and to get the very young into sailing. My view and this is only my view is having the Sabot as a pre-junior sailboat, having some junior level cat (Wave or H14) as a junior boat, and then the H16 (H16 Trapseat for the disAbled) as the youth boat would be a great progression for sailors. So after their youth years they could stay with the active H16 class and attend the worlds, or move onto the formula 18, Olympic Tornado, etc. multihull sailing. These are all ideas and may be greatly flawed.<br><br>