Americas cup

Originally posted by Chris 249 /\Secondly, there is evidence that there is a serious risk in separating the marquee event too far from the form of the sport most people can do.

This is the old argument on the Winter Olympics as to whether the Downhill should be something everyone can do, and can identify with it. Or do you have an extremely difficult course that only a handful can complete.

If we want participation we get everyone sailing Lasers and get the numbers up, until they get bored with Laser sailing and want something more exciting, or that is different than singlehanding a stacking monotype.

Originally posted by Chris 249 /But, to repeat myself, if the hyper-performance pro route was going to have the benefits people claimed, then why aren't we seeing sailing growing in the country that followed that route more than anywhere else?

Because the hyper-performance route is something that the general media can get, it gets more TV news time etc - mainly stuff like Coutts crashing an AC45, Oracle barreling their AC72 etc. That makes the  prime time news. Non-sailors see it and the sports starts getting a bit more attention than it would have done otherwise.

When did you last see Laser or one design racing on prime-time TV news? (I mean in the main news bulletins not the sports news.

The point is that there is no direct relationship that says because people see AC boats racing you will see club fleets double the next week with people new to the sport that have just rushed out and bought boats.

But certainly it lifts the profile of the sport. When you talk to non-sailors they know what you are talking about, and if given the opportunity to go sailing they will probably give it a try.

When the sport was low-profile it was always a hard sell and described as like watching paint dry/standing in a shower ripping up $100 notes etc. You don't hear that sort of comment any more. Well not in NZ at least. And probably not in UK after BAR have been in the news a bit more (and won something).

RG