I am going to leave this question completely open-ended, because I have strong opinions about this, and I don't want to influence answers that can come from many different perspectives. Maybe I will chime back in later.
No!
If you are a recreational sailor... the large number of designs available at all price ranges allow you to match your wishes perfectly!
Yes! if you are a racer because racing requires a critical mass of sailors who agree to compete and have similar comitments to that level of racing. In 2002 we do not have enough racing sailors to fill out each class on the schedule and have good racing in all classes.
You can point the finger at the racing sailors and say... Hey you should just race on X boat cause that is the racing class and everyone else has one!..... Or you can point the finger at the builders and say... Hey... don't you dare introduce another design and fracture the racing scene any more..... Personally, I don't think that the finger pointing is at all usefull. You can't stop progress in boat design and you can't order someone to race a boat that they just don't like, just cause that is what everyone else has.
Take Care
Mark
Hello Mary-
Knowing you and Rick were sailing cats when I started in the mid 1960s; I know you can remember when there weren't any real production cats out there to choose from. I remember the sudden freedom of dragging a cat to different beachs throughout the summer. Then in the early 1970s new cats started springing up everywhere. Now there seems to be a surge of new designs worldwide.
I personally feel its a good thing on one side of the equation. The boat buyer has a large selection to choose from both new designs and existing models as well. The resale of many boats has deteriorated at a faster rate because of this same model selection thats now available.
Racing one design wars have been around forever and the open event handicaps never seem to work for everyone. Some have closed their events to one manufacturer participation while others say the more the better.
As long as there are sailors that want to sail I think the more cats/options available the better.
thom
there aren't to may beach cat designs just to many manufacturers that want their own Single Manufacturer One-Design classes. Go Formula and get the best of both worlds.
Wouter
There are plenty of Cats and choices. If you want to race in one design, select from the most popular Cats in your area. What ever you do, get active and support your class by helping in the planning and conduct of the events.
Caleb Tarleton