Mark, thanks for enlightening us non-Americans as to how the cat-sailing scene in the US evolved. As much as Americans don`t understand how we can co-exist in other countries, we can`t understand how you guys can exist without eachother`s co-operation ! It makes no sense for us to have tiny fleets of separate classes rather than descent sized fleets of mixed boats, just from an organisation point of view. Incidentally, the 4 Darts I mentioned in a previous post have asked for their own start at our club, so it seems OD racing is the preferred option, but sharing a race course is no problem. I think they prefer their own start simply becuase they don`t like us beating them, since we`re faster round a course. They would probably start with us if we were the slower class. No-one wants to be shown that their chosen class of boat is slower than another class, so this is perfectly understandable.

Mary raised a valid question - If OD racing is preferred, why are the guys sailing the one-offs at regattas in open class not doing more to track down other owners of the same class, and coaxing them out onto the race course ? I guess because it`s work & effort to do that.
Some classes such as Hobie have a dealer who`se best interest is to promote OD racing, and does so. This keeps the sailors coming back to events, boosts numbers and sells boats, which is why they put in the effort.
Some classes have an association, who`se committee are passionate about promoting their class for no financial benefit - they realise that it`s in their own best interest to get more boats on the water, as it will increase their own enjoyment to have more competitors.
Other classes don`t have either - unless one of them takes the initiative to do so, their class won`t grow.
Another factor could be that, because boats with strong OD classes will retain higher re-sale values, they tend to be bought by racing minded sailors who are prepared to pay the higher price for a competitive boat. The boats that don`t have strong OD class racing or infrastructure will generally have lower resale values, which attract guys who just want to cruise around and have fun, and are hesitant to race for any number of reasons. We have to look back at ourselves and ask how we got into sailing - most of us probably were just into the sensation of moving along quietly in a gentle breeze, and got into racing much later.
Some of us get into racing, and some never do. Doesn`t make them any less of a sailor though.
So I think many non-racers end up with the boats that have no class racing, and this makes it even harder to get them together to race, since that`s not why they bought the boat. Make any sense ??