Eric,

I am relatively new to the sport and I too have a young son. Although he is too young to join me on the boat now, one day that will change. Your experience has not changed my desire to eventually sail with my son. What it does, is give me another piece of valuble information regarding the various scenarios where risk is involved. This is very important to me because without this information I cannot properly assess my own risks, plan ahead, and manage the risk to the best of my ability.

To me, there seems to be a general reluctance within the Cat community in seriously discussing what "can go wrong" on a catamaran. Such discussion is often brushed-off as fear-mongering or minimized entirely as inconsequential. For new guys like myself, this creates real difficulty when it comes to risk awareness/managment and choosing the safest equipment. In addition, when someone shares the experience, as you have, it gives the rest of us the opportunity to visualize ourselves in that particular danger and also visialize a course of action back to safety...priceless!

Thanks very much,

Dave