I am not defending the decision on the book, but after the change was made, I found out that one of the committee members is a good friend of mine. I asked about why that change was made, and was told that it was done to simplify the book. The committee made the assumption that not many people learn on cats first (at least not kids), so cat-specific instruction will be included in the next level up.

I don't agree with this logic, but I can tell you that this person would never blow sunshine, so I do believe the explanation, and know that this is one more example of them not thinking it through (or at least taking the minimal effort of contacting us and asking), but I attribute that to volunteers being human, not a worldwide conspiracy as some here would have you believe.

This is also a shining example of where we need to improve our communications with the rest of US Sailing, it's a two-way street. This is one of our goals for the coming year.

Mike