Olympic Sailing - interesting paper

Originally posted by turnturtle Originally posted by maxibuddah Originally posted by fab100 Originally posted by iGRF Good sailors should be able to sail anything and make it look OK Graeme, a 470 helmed by a 95kg 6ft Finn sailor would be last every time, at a proper event, just like Hannah Mills would be in a Finn. Squaddie male 470 helms are told they must be under 60kg. Any sensible single trap boat will get to the same. [QUOTE=iGRF] the question should be, what would, by being presented to the world at large, be better to promote the sport to a wide and gender equal audience. Sailing is not and will never be a spectator sport. Even crash bang is usually dull to watch. Team racing is closest to being televisual, it's phrenetic but mostly happens too quickly to be explained properly. Ultimately, ours is a participation sport; we should be selling the idea of doing it, and you won't succeed in that by making people watch it.  And the fact that it's not a spectator sport means the sport should be questioning whether it should be part of the Olympics at all. The Olympics is all about chasing the TV shilling these days and sailing will not fit in with that no matter how you tinker with classes. It's too complicated for the masses to be televisual for them. you have an old school view of television watching.... nowadays it's about a 15-45 second clip, packaged up for Internet dissemination with wrap-around sponsorship messaging or linked content.  I'd argue the right type of sailing can be very watchable by the masses.... it just takes a bit of encouragement to cause some physical damage, maiming and/or any other form of sensationalism. Bottom line we need more Ben Ainslie's punching reporters, a few more limbs being amputated by foils on film and failing that, more totty in skinny wetsuits.

Definitely agree about upwind starts and finishes, not so sure about two hour races, I'm no longer for enough to enjoy (or even complete) them.

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons BTW there isn't a leeward mark WRT downwind finishes

I imagine he means the sort of course that has a short broad reach to a finish from what was previously the leeward mark or one side of a gate.

Going back to one hour and a half or more long race a day, that is basically over in the first 10 minutes after the start if you haven't managed to get in the leading group, would be my idea of hell. The solution, of course is to run the race in flights so that you have reasonable sized fleets where clear air can be found by the middle of the fleet too. But short races and large line starts sounds like a good shot at getting the worst of all possible worlds.

It gets back to the question, 'What do we want from it ourselves' are we after the pinnacle of sailing competition with global bragging rights, which I'm sorry, but Olympics aint it, never has been never will be, or..

Do we want some sort of televisual contrivance that will have folk beating paths to the doors of our various clubs to try this stuff?

My wife knows nothing about sailing, never been to club, yet she could follow the 'Star' racing, she was quite pleased a Brit' won, can only speak from my own experience regarding non sailors watching sailing on tv.