Hi Gang,
I see much confusion between sailing as a sport popularity
and sailing in a given class popularity. The decision as to whether or not a sport should be in the Olympics is made based on the popularity of the sport world wide. In our case it is the sport of sailing. As to what class/event to put in the Olympic sailing contest, that is a totally different question. The Olympic sailing contest must be held in a boat that is very responsive to sailing skill of all facets and it must also be very responsive to athletic ability, physical conditioning, strength, endurance etc. Now a boat that does this isn't going to be popular. Serious Olympic minded sailors for the most part are going to enjoy this boat and the average sailor will not enjoy/appreciate this boat. In sailing the boat has a major impact on the degree of difficulty of the contest or another way to say it is the opportunity for sailors to show their skill. The parallel to this in snow skiing is the use of the giant downhill slope to determine the best speed skier in the world. This 80 mph slope certainly isn't popular, the bunny slope is much more popular, but the giant downhill slope is what is required to separate the best snow skiers in the world according to skill. The same is true for sailing. The giant downhill boats belong in the Olympics and they will only be popular with Olympic minded sailors of which there are few but thank goodness for them.
Bill