Ya know, I think the problem is that there are two completely different mindsets involved here with two completely different goals for the youth sailors.

In the United States I think the reason for getting kids sailing on catamarans is to get them hooked so they will stay with it or come back to it some day and there will be younger generations to keep beach-cat sailing going strong.

On the other hand, I think ISAF's goal is to provide an "Olympic path" for youth catamaran sailors who are interested in pursuing a career in sailing and trying for the Olympics.

For the first perspective, the Hobie 16 works just fine and will continue to work just fine for a long time.

From the ISAF perspective, a boat like the SL16 is needed for the kids who are highly motivated to work toward the Olympics and need a boat that will help them prepare for moving onto a Tornado in the future.

I think the SL16 is going to appeal to youth sailors who have grown up in the very competitive monohull world of youth racing and want another option for getting to the Olympics.

It will appeal to the parents of those kids -- and a lot of those parents are able to afford to buy a catamaran like that for their kids.

So we have two parallel paths, but with very different objectives.

We do not, and have never had, very many youth sailors racing catamarans in this country, despite a lot of effort by a lot of people over a period of decades. And of the few we have, how many are really interested in going to the Olympics?

Perhaps this new boat is important, because if it gets the yacht club kids excited about moving onto catamarans, maybe that will motivate the catamaran kids to take the whole thing more seriously. And if there is a will, there is always a way.