"Personally I think the ISAF youth multihull should simply be the boat that the majority of youth are actually racing. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that."
Rhody, can`t fault your logic there, but if you did a survey you might find that the H16 is NOT that boat in the greater scheme. Perhaps it is, but not where I`m from, The Hobie class is not attracting young skippers right now which needs to be rectified. Most of the top sailors are the same guys who were the top sailors in the 80`s. I think the rising cost of equipment is a probable factor.
In Europe I believe the H16 is not the largest class, and probably not the boat of choice of most young sailors unless they want to attend youth worlds, and then it is no longer a boat of choice, but the boat they have to sail.
In the Uk I`d imagine one of the Dart classes is the boat most youth sail, perhaps the 16 or even the 18.
It would be interesting to actually know which boat (worldwide) is sailed by most young cat sailors. In Australia I`d imagine it could be a Paper Tiger / Mosquito / or even Taipan. Or H16 ??
Would be an interesting exercise - we could get someone from each country on the forum to submit results of the national champs of the major classes in their country, and highlight the competitors who qualify as youth sailors.
Any takers ?? I`ll do SA !!