At least that's what sailing friends from Wales tells me. Most of their sailing experience and their friends that are now currently sailing, racing and world cruising, are doing that in smaller boats than comparable US sailors are doing the same in.

I wonder how much the US new boat production market is driven by demand, and how much is driven by the industry themselves. Maybe it's their only way to compete with each other at this point of leapfrogging last years size?

A little like the US auto industry that kept building bigger and faster(less efficient) autos, as the rest of the world went in the other direction, for decades. We know what happened there.