[quote]I have heared that cat sailing is decresing in some geographic areas. If so what areas is it decreasing and any reasons why? Also does anyone know of the geographic areas in which cats sailing in growing fairly rapidly?[quote]

First of all everything is cyclical to some degree but I fear there is little hope for a comeback here. In our area (Southern California) the sport is all but non existent
due to the following reasons:

1: In most areas you are not allowed to store a recreational vehicle where it can be seen from the street. This means you will need to pay between $140 and $225 a month to store you boat in a mast down area some distance from the beach which opens at 8AM and closes at 6PM.

2: Time- It takes quite a while to drive from your house to where you boat is stored, sign out the boat, drive to one of three launch ramps in all of LA and Orange counties that allow sailboats and set up, get launched and sail for a few hours before you need to tear down and get back before 6PM. No beach storage is allowed overnight.

3: The water here is 54'F in the winter and 62-68 in the summer. Cold by most standards. There really are no lakes as this is a desert. What lakes there are do not allow water contact of any type and generally catamarans are not allowed on them as they are potable water sources.

Lastly the sprot of sailing is almost non existent here due to pressures from mass appeal events like:

Theme parks- There are 7 of them within 100 miles of here.
PWC and power boats- Turn a key and you are yachting
Extreme sports- Dirt Bikes, off road etc
Soccer, football, cheerleading, baseball etc etc along with professional sports teams.
Snow skiing and Snowboarding is an hour and a half a away.
and on and on.

I love the sport and still do it when I can. I will be buying a beachcat this spring to introduce my 11 year old to the sport and if she likes it we'll move up to something like a Reynolds 33.

It's a tough market out here and I hope this gives you a peek into why there is not a single Hobie Dealer or NACRA/Prindle/INTER dealer in Los Angeles...a city of some 17 million people.

Scary.

Mark Michaelsen
Luv dem beachcats