Not true in the UK and a fair number of other countries I'd bet. IIRC we needed to IMPORT new 16's from France into the UK so that the squad could have boats to sail - A couple of the guys I know hated sailing the 16 and as soon as they could they moved up to the F18 and they are doing quite well ! They feel that the 16 held them back rig development, rig tuning and general sailing skills, only plus point was big fleet racing.

I don't want to end in a down beat way. So maybe there needs to be a selection of boats with a kite that can be used as qualifier boats. Then something that is then provided FOC by the ISAF for the events. Maybe The Spitfire/F18/F16 which have been designed to have a kite, the kids want to sail and is fun and a challenge to sail and not a challenge to stop pitchpoling.