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How to make Sailing more 'Televisual' |
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pondmonkey
Really should get out more Joined: 12 Aug 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2202 |
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Topic: How to make Sailing more 'Televisual' Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 3:36pm |
whilst I quite agree with the sentiment and the temerarious choice of vocab, I do wonder if there is some negative influence creeping into the recreational classes too? All courtesy of this silly medal race format. Doesn't the D-One follow a non-discardable 'medal race' format for their regattas? I know the RS100 had two non-discardable 'long' races at the first nationals... not sure if this is still the case? I do hope both bits of info are now out-of-date, I really don't think a competitor should be overly penalised for heading ashore to the bar too early, it's just not on....
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Contender443
Really should get out more Joined: 01 Oct 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1211 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 4:06pm |
Having no discards would simplify things for the Olympic viewers. Every Olympic sailor should be fit enough to finish every race and have well maintained kit to avoid breakages.
All you need then is a sensible RO to can races when the conditions are not fair and a rule allowing a race to be stopped and re-started if a competitor breaks something especially in the event supplied classes.
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Bonnie Lass Contender 1764
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SUGmeister
Sailwave Moderators Joined: 08 Jun 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 265 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 4:13pm |
From today's Butt....
AN IDEA OF OLYMPIC PROPORTION The sailing events at the 2012 Olympic Games were the latest experiment on how to present the sport to a larger audience. These efforts, which will continue, tend to exploit venue location, positioning the course closer to shoreside spectators... at the typical expense of consistent winds. But what about the race format? Sailing, in how it determines its medalists, remains acutely unique in comparison to the other Olympic sporting events. As managing director of the Ronstan sailboat hardware empire, Australian Alistair Murray offers an alternative that could help the sport achieve the audience interest its leadership seems so eager to gain... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I loved the Olympics, and I loved the sailing events. Why? Because I'm a sailor! Australia did well, so sailing was the talk of the town down-under, and many non-sailors were engaged in conversations about the sailing events. But these people find the sport unfathomable! They don't understand the scoring, the heats, the discard or that somebody coming 9th in the medal race wins gold while the winner gets nothing. They tune out! Let's continue with the regatta formats we all love, but the Olympics is our shop window, the chance to showcase our sport! The most understandable and exciting for the non-sailors was the match racing, and it has been canned! Why not have every sailing event race a 3 day, 3 race regatta around a 1 1/2 hour course, so that the luck of a shift or a poor start is largely neutralized. Everybody races in the first fleet race. The top 16 go through to the second day's race, with the top 8 advancing to the third day and the race for the medals. No point scoring, just elimination with the winners of the final race winning the medals. Formats similar to this work in other sports, and in fact, in the cycling road races, marathons and triathlons you only get one chance. TV covers sailing in grabs anyway. Show the start, highlights, finishes, and televise the whole medal race. My non sailing friends will love it, and I still will too! And the best sailors will still win. http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/archived_Detail.asp?key=5011 |
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Oli
Really should get out more Joined: 23 Mar 05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1020 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 4:34pm |
a refined version of what i was trying to get to here
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blueboy
Really should get out more Joined: 27 Aug 10 Online Status: Offline Posts: 512 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 7:18pm |
I've been fairly surprised to find colleagues, who know I sail but don't themselves, talk quite knowledgeably about sailing in the last couple of weeks. The presumption it is incomprehensible to the public seems more assumption than fact. |
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blueboy
Really should get out more Joined: 27 Aug 10 Online Status: Offline Posts: 512 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 7:21pm |
ACWS has plenty of ideas and has spent a fortune to make a sailing event TV friendly. Know what? Compared to the Women's Match Racing, it quickly gets tedious to watch. Proper sailing, as we practice it, is actually more entertaining than a made-for-TV imitation of the real thing. |
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Rupert
Really should get out more Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 9:58pm |
Is there anyone on here who would choose to watch sailing on the telly if they could be out sailing/racing themselves at the same time, even though there might not be quite the same quality of sailor on the water as on the TV?
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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sargesail
Really should get out more Joined: 14 Jan 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1459 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 15 Aug 12 at 11:33pm |
I'm with Blueboy - sailing's incomprehensibility is an assumption, not backed up in reality. And there are two issues which are conflated:
1. The event scoring system (discards, medal races et al). (At least we no longer have the "Olympic" scoring system (0 for 1st, 3 for 2nd, etc, 5.7 for 3rd, or the old low points with 0.75 - we've come a long way). 2. Understanding who is winning on the water. I'm going to ignore the first for now. The problem with the second is that you can't take in the full view through a camera and the telephoto lens makes boats seem closer than they are, and at a distant you need elevation to get perspective on boats on opposite tacks, or the same tack with separation. It was the elevation which made the Nothe such a good place to watch from (in my view there should have been no Medal race in certain directions and below certain windspeeds - hard to have elevation without geographical effect. The computer graphics help, but they only give a distance to mark, or (on the more sophisticated versions, a time to mark) but that ignores things like which gate mark is closer, and much more improtantly that one boat has a faster angle to sail. How many times did you watch Ben or Ian and Bart appear to be 10 to 20 meters behind on the system, but further to leeward, only to find that they were level or ahead at teh mark or finish as the downwind and upwind boats converged. At the Nothe I ran my own commentary for my Dad - halfway through the day he and I realised that it was quiet around us because people were listening to my (marginally less than the commentary team's) b**locks - and a few commented that they had understood much better once i had explained teh angles and the gusts and shifts, all of which were very visible. So it just takes commentary and perspective/view. Neither of which are easily delivered, but neitherof which are impossible!
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getafix
Really should get out more Joined: 28 Mar 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2143 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 16 Aug 12 at 12:13pm |
+1 a lot depends on the commentator involved, in fact I'd go as far as to say 80% as during the Olympics I found myself watching (and listening while driving) events I have no idea about, like taikwondo, water-polo, 3-day eventing and gymnastics, but well explained they were none the less enjoyable because I don't really "get" the way the sports work from actually being a participant at some level |
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Rupert
Really should get out more Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 16 Aug 12 at 12:28pm |
I think I enjoyed the sports I didn't understand more than the sailing, as I wasn't getting annoyed about things that were said! Apart from Waterpolo, which just appeared to be lots of coloured caps throwing a ball around then chasing it. |
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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