There is a major problem, as I see it, in “looking to the past” when it comes to this sort of a comparison between the recreational sporting scene world wide, as it stands today, and that of the 1970/80’s. Sure Hobie “led the world” in that time period in market penetration by bringing into the sailing of cats, a whole generation of people who had never sailed before, but that in itself was mainly due to circumstances that were far different from those of today. There were not the “electronic “ games for the kids. Hell there wasn’t even “home computers”. More “kids’ were involved with “outdoor activities”, as were their parents, the whole family, as a “family”, went to the “pictures” once a week instead of staying home in front of the “box”. There wasn’t the proliferation of all the many and varied “manufactured toys”, such as RV’s, trail bikes (there were limited numbers of relatively expensive ones though, that parents looked upon as some what dangerous for both them and their kids as well as carrying the unwanted label (at that time) of “bikie”), “jet ski’s”, kite sailing, sail boarding, and a plethora of diversions that are readily available today at an “affordable” cost to the average family. It was just a far different time, but it was the right time for catamarans. During the 70’s, in Australia, there were literally hundreds of different catamaran manufacturers (not just Hobie) building and selling every type of cat ranging from 10’ to 18’ (both good and often bad) that you could imagine. By the mid 80’s there were only about 20 of those “commercial” businesses left, (today there are even less). One of the biggest influences in the early 80’s on the downturn of available catamarans was the prolific acceptance of “windsurfer”. This innovation decimated the sales of catamarans (and still has a big effect today on potential cat sales). To my way of thinking, it is completely irrelevant to look at “cat” sailing of that period and even try to make any objective comparison to what is happening today. Now, it is “one of many” instead of the “stand out” that it was. The “feeling” of and for the sport hasn’t changed; it’s the choices that people have for their “recreation” activities that have become far greater.
I personally feel that the future in cat sailing is to “expect” that the potential market will probably become smaller (comparatively) to the overall “leisure” market, and as such it shouldn’t be trying to compete with all the other available “gimmicks, gadgets, popular for the moment” items that are thrown at us through endless advertising “propaganda”, but it should be, instead, taking this opportunity to innovate in design, construction, and performance, and reduce the numbers of variant sizes of cats, and instead have cats that can sail/race against each other on equal terms (across the line) at the pinnacle of design and performance excellence (the “formula” springs to mind). Catamaran sailing, as an activity and a sport doesn’t have to “prove” itself (anymore), it is now fully legitimate, and as such it should be striving for excellence and not for some “new gimmick” to put up against any RV, computer game, etc, as an alternative leisure activity, it should be producing cats for the cat sailor, and when the general public see how thoroughly complete the activity is, well perhaps even a few of them may even decide to become involved as well.
Just my personal thoughts on the subject.
