Demographic Changes

Interesting point about the snobbery in kayaks. It could be that the new and casual users have become so much more common than the snobs that the snobs are basically ignored? 

IMHO the underlying issue could be that sailing's too preoccupied with other things to think about satisfying a pent up desire to get in the water in simple, accessible sailing craft. I don't know the figures, but one manager from Hobie US has said on the US Hobie forum that one of the Hobie kayaks is the world's top-selling sailboat. I went in to one of our local diving/snowsports shops to get some wettie boots after doing an F18 cat regatta and there was some mutual puzzlement when I mentioned to the manager that I had been racing a Hobie - as he told me later, to the yoof these days a "Hobie" is a plastic kayak, sometimes with a sail on it.

Some of the guys credited with sparking the plastic sit on top market specifically stated that they made it big time because windsurfing got too high tech, leaving the kayaks with surplus rotomoulding equipment, salesmen, manufacturing staff and manufacturing plant. Whether that (and the success of Toppers etc) indicates that there is room for a re-thinking about sailing's attitude towards plastic sailboats is one thing, but IMHO it's arguably fair to say that most of the sport hasn't turned an open mind to the question- a lot of the press and officials seem to be stuck in the ageing mindset that high performance is the only way forward.