I`ll try to keep this one shorter .
Ok, entry to Worlds limited - I never knew that.

"Would it be insulting to say that you basically think that the T is kept artifically alive by the olympics?"
No, quite the opposite - I think (my opinion only) that Olympic status can do more to harm a healthy class than help it grow. Basically the class grows at the highest level at the expense of membership at the base. When a setback at the highest level occurs (such as being replaced as the Olympic boat), is there still enough of a membership at the weekend level for the class to survive? Has the Soling survived after being dropped from The Olympics ? I don`t know, but would guess against that probability.
What I`m saying is it`s kind of like a vicious circle - The boat gets selected for the Olympics, then in order to remain the Olympic boat they have to keep changing to suit the IOC selection requirements. So they do this for 20 years, only to find they have out-priced themselves in the base market, ie us, the weekend sailors. NOW they HAVE TO REMAIN the Olympic boat to keep their popularity.
The T is a great boat, but for a lot less money you can now buy quite a few very nice boats, F18/F18HT etc.
Would the T remain as popular without being the Olympic boat ? I can`t answer that, but I have my own ideas.
Would it have grown to what it is now without Olympic status ? Of course that is impossible to answer. It would probably be less high-tech,less expensive, and have more builders involved, as the only reason it has funneled down to one major builder is that everyone MUST HAVE the boat that won last year`s Worlds. The original olympic classes could be home-built and was in fact a criteria for the selection, this is long gone.

"Professionalism are making some disturbances in our sport, as you say. And we regular guys are of course not competitive with the pros'. But doesn't your 10-12 Marstrøms (and I bet there are other T-designs in SA +neighbouring countries as well) go out racing and have a good time? If they dont, why? Lack of initative, acceptable goals or general apathy?"
Unfortunately they don`t race often, for all of the reasons you list. It`s a lot of work to travel to an event, set up the boat, and take time off work, pay accommodation etc, for a Nationals where maybe 6-8 boats will attend, if we had 30 boats and 20 of those attended it would be more worthwhile. Our situation is so different - take the price of any boat and multiply it by 8,5 - that`s realistically what a boat costs us. If you earn R10 000 and a new Tornado costs R 300 000, that is the comparison. 30 times our income. So there won`t be too many more imported T`s here. Our Marstroms are over 10 years old, so not worth spending all the money to attend a Worlds where the newer boats have the advantage. So that goal is out of most people`s reach.

Of course here a Laser and Hobie 16 costs around R65 000, while a brand new entry level car costs R80 000, while there can be no comparison in the effort & technology required to build each. So that has killed sailing here to a large extent. We have a few 49er`s, 10 or so 29er`s, not enough boats in each fleet to build on. We must produce locally to keep sailing reasonably affordable, which is what is happening.

By the way, I can buy a complete Mosquito, (16ft "miniature Tornado" ) for R50 000, or 6275 Euro, probably the same price as the new carbon T mast ! It has carbon reinforced epoxy-foam sandwich hulls, carbon boards & blades, full mylar sails, spinnaker, and weighs about 100kg.

I think the problem with our sport is that it is way too fragmented, there are more boats than sailors, and still more boats being designed every day. When a new class is introduced, it will grow at the expense of an older class, I suppose that is evolution, but not growth.

Cheers
Steve