I just saw the "Afraid of Flying Scots?" article in the September Catamaran Sailor magazine. Of the 31 applications, I can athoritatively state that at least one came from a catamaran sailor - me. As you can guess though, I was not one of the 20 that US Sailing invited to attend. The rejection (oh, excuse me - "waitlist") letter did not give a reason but I did hear a few through the grapevine. (1) Most of the people on the selection committee had never heard of an Isotope and didn't want to invite an unfamiliar boat. (2) The Isotope fleet was too small. (3) They wanted to choose sailors from fleets that were similar to the Flying Scot, which was the boat chosen for the event.

#1 really means that we need to publicize our fleets better. The letter did have three suggestions: (1a) Make sure the fleet is a member of US Sailing, (1b) Publish the results of the qualifying event, and (1c) Make sure the NOR for that event lists it as qualifying the winner to apply for an invitation.

#2 - size may not be everything, but I guess it still counts. Oddly enough they did invite the Tanzer 16 (which I also sail) national champion, even though the Tanzer fleet is smaller than the Isotopes.

#3 should really concern us all. Apparently the C of C selection committee thinks that sailboards and keelboats are like Flying Scots, but multihulls are not. I hope that mentality won't exclude catamaran and trimaran sailors from next year's event which will be sailed on Y-Flyers.

I was personally quite disappointed because I wanted to sail with my father, who lives in Michigan and used to race a Flying Scot when I was just a toddler. We would have had a great time.

Perhaps we should lobby a club to host the Championship of Champions using catamarans. They could then invite the Sharks, A-cats, Tornados, Hobies, Nacras, Prindles, Mysteres, Supercats, Taipans, F16s, F18s, Isotopes, Corsair F24s and F31s, (and two Optimist Prams) - but not the Flying Scots.

Regards, Eric (Isotope 42)