Spinnaker use on cats has only become widely popular and accepted in what? the last 10 years or so? This is due largely in part to the Worrell. Most of these manufacturers that you blame for 'poor product support' have already made a substantial number of boats and have established substantial classes since before the spinnaker really became popular on a cat. In the interest of not further diluting the classes already estabilished, these manufacturers choose instead to maintain the existing boat configurations to the benefit of strict one design racing. I think it's not poor product support but it's a carry over from the 70/80's marketing philosophy with an attempt to maintain the bigger picture: product placement in the market.

However, we're now seeing a transformation in the industry with the dilution of the classes to the point where one design and classes are becoming less important to the sailors to some degree. As a result of this, we are now beginning to see the manufacturers make more options to supply the widely varying desires of the sailors. The Hobie 16, 18, and 20 has a spinnaker option, Performance Cat's 6.0 now has a factory spin option, and we're seeing 17' boats from several manufacturers with sloop, uni, two up, one up, spin, and no spin all in one platform. The days of the manufacturer trying to maintain control over one design racing are fading.

As to the sailors with the Rube Goldberg designs, God love 'em. I'm probably one of them. It is through experimenting and refinement that new and easier ways to do things come about. Rube believed that there were two ways to do things: the simple way and the hard way, and that a surprisingly number of people preferred doing things the hard way. I believe that through sometimes doing things the hard way, I learn more, and an easier way becomes more obvious.