Olympic TV Coverage

Maybe the Olympics should be downwind slaloms in 49ers, windsurfers and kiteboard, match racing with a final and 3rd place play off. Have a 2nd chance idea like the bikes do, too. Not the sport we actually do, but then, apart from in rush hour, how many cyclists follow a moped around?

I guess the commentary has to be principally directed at non sailors like it is for other special interest sports. There seemed to be plenty of explanations of starting tactics, covering, tacking on lay lines etc.

Given the vagaries of the wind, the size of the area in which sailing takes place and the filming resources available I think overall it was OK.

Pretty much agree with everything written here, lucky to have anything about sailing to watch, but annoying commentators, cutways to beach, long pauses with nothing, bad camera angles unable to watch both sides of the course to see what direction I'd have gone/ why one side or the other prevailed. Weymouth was better, better informed commentary required even those that allegedly knew what they were talking about graphically demonstrated lack of race craft.

The early Nacra races I found most enjoyable, have never seen Cats sailed tactically before always figured them as corner bashers it was good to watch them having to work downwind as tactically as they had to up on the sketchy wind courses of the early races, I quite fancy one of them.

Edited by iGRF - 19 Aug 16 at 4:52pm

I found the camera cuts incredibly annoying - particularly at the starts. You would get a good overhead shot of the fleet manoeuvring, a bit of intelligent comment about it if you were lucky and then at the critical moment they'd cut to a stern view of a random boat, or whatever. Clearly put together by people who didn't understand sailing and were just after spectacle.

I thought the TV coverage was pretty good. Lots of graphics, cameras on the boats, and the visuals with Rio as a backdrop were stunning in HD. Having said that I'm still not convinced sailing makes much of a spectator sport, I rarely watched for more than 10 minutes or so without getting bored and turning to something else.