I disagree, Flash/Bling of Americas cup sparked interest in Catamaran sailing. The same goes for a website like this. We don't know who passes by this site. This is 2015, it shouldn't take a year to learn how to navigate a website.
The status-quo isn't exactly booming.
Agreed.
America's Cup ect is making Racing catamarans look fun again. Look at all the youth racing classes sprouting up.... 16 foot spinnaker boats and now foiling catamarans. There's an opportunity to catch young peoples attention and gravitate them to the sport. Not talking about *bling. Does this site have too much bling? (
http://sailinganarchy.com/ )
Imagine something similar with America's cup pics,
AC45 World series, the new Phantom and Race news and feeds from around the world ( BTW almost every major beach now has live streaming web cams )
I meet 10-20 guys every year ( ages 15-50 ) whilst launching or landing my cat that come running down the beach asking about sailing, is it difficult? Where are the resources? Is there a community? I want to learn about it! Its even easier when they're 5 -6 cats pulling up on a beach after sailing up and down the area while people camping and people out on motor boats have been staring you down for a few hours
there IS an interest.
We just need every opportunity to turn someone merely interested, into a boat owner that has a blast feeling what we guys already know about. I'm not dissing the guys that started out cat sailing by lashing two canoes together six feet apart with bamboo and using their feet to steer upwind both ways haha. The site really is fine as is but it also took me a good while to dig around, figure out what a formula 16 trapseat was, formula 20? I have a non formula Hobie 20? is there anything on that!?? ect ect.
I sailed my Hobie 16, 3 weeks after buying it and had never been on a catamaran ever, but i knew the sailing basics. Now most warm weekends in the summer I take out a couple 17yo's for a 30 minute sail on my 16, 10 mph wind, show them how to launch, tack, jybe ( not flip )and make it back to the beach where we started and they're hooked! I let 'em group up and sail around the
lake on my spare 16 for hours at a time. ( keeping an eye on them of course, life jackets mandatory ) There is a BIG interest of Younger sailors here..... The teenagers are getting tired of sitting on dads pontoon boat watching me fly a hull past them
Besides all the negative political spam I hear about there's got to be a way to inform and encourage new sailors without too many obstacles and hurdles.
