Some other comments-
<br>In Europe they have sailing "clubs" to which you can belong. The clubs own boats and you simply reserve a boat, show up and sail. No access, storage, registration, trailer, long (or dead) grass, insurance, maintenance or upkeep issues. Just a "low" monthly fee.
<br>Many of the Universities here have sailing clubs that students and faculty can join that operate much the same way. But I've never seen a cat at one-
<br>Our sailing club here has "club-owned" boats that can be used by anyone, but again, no cats.
<br>Perhaps this would be a way to promote (or keep alive??) cat sailing in certain areas- If everyone banded together and started a club such as this or bought a few of those cheap old boats and had them available for use by "newbies" or "wanna-bes" for a set fee or period.
<br>Another interesting thing I've noticed is it seems to me, when I got into cat sailing in the 70's I used to go to my local lake about every weekend and see LOTS of boats out "JUST SAILING" and having fun! Heck, if it was a Holiday or beautiful long weekend you would see more boats than you did on a Regatta day if the weather sucked! Now, when I go out "just sailing", I see a few cats sometimes and lots more monos. Only see a lot of cats out if they are "racing". Sometimes I think one of the problems is "we" (the few still active cat sailors and perhaps some, if not all, the US builders) stress racing (intentionally or unintentionally) rather than "just sailing". I didn't buy my first new cat to "race" but just to sail and I had to be cajoled into entering my first regatta. Not many people buy their first car to race it, they consider racing cars after they know how to drive and want to test or improve their skill at it. If we "made" everybody who wanted to drive feel like they had to enter a "Formula 1 race" (although coming to work some days feels like one!) to join the ranks of "drivers" there would be a lot less of those too!
<br>So one thing I try to do is encourage and help all "newbies" to JUST SAIL and offer to sail with them, meet them at the lake, etc. I DO NOT try to push them into racing, they will "ask" if/when they are ready AND if they don't want to, and all they want to do is sail and enjoy the sport they are still "okay" by me (but scorned by many other "racers" unfortunately).
<br>By the way, no one mentioned the Escape Playcat which was designed and is being marketed to do just what Ed suggested at the start of this thread and we should ALL applaud their efforts! Also, no mention was made of my good friends, the Fahle's, who single-handedly brought in a large number of "beginners" boats and have "jump-started" cat sailing in their area-
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<br>Kirt Simmons<br><br>Kirt Simmons
<br>Taipan #159, "A" cat US 48