49er medal race

Originally posted by Ian S Some reaches for the non asyys would have been nice... far more exiting than windward leewards for the 470's

Agreed. Windward-leewards not only quickly become boring to sail, they look boring to viewers too. Even on an asymmetric, a kite reach wil be more exciting to watch or sail than a run.

Ironic really, when you think how much our sport has sacrificed over the years at olympic level in order to make it TV-friendly.

Originally posted by oz man so many posts on this race i dont know who to wind up first. i cant see why some of you guys think this was a bad advert for our sport fast,dramatic,full of incident,breakages, challenging conditions, the best sailors in the world finding it difficult what more could you ask for? so some of the half boats fell over. who ever said winning a gold medal was supposed to be easy. this race will not lower sailings profile any lower than the previous weeks driftathon. scooby your boy wants a 49er for christmas that must be like getting stabbed through the heart. it could be worse though just think he could have watched the guys trotting about on horses in the dressarge and want horse ridding lesson. that would be awful!!!!!!!!!

Peter Johnstone (of J/Boats fame) was one of the team that create the
49er; ask julian and he'll tell you how important tHe team was (very!).

After Peter introduced the SMOD skiff type to the world (with the OD 14),
he and a group including the world's biggest sailmaker (North) bought
the biggest dinghy builder in the world's biggest economy (Vanguard).

They then spend over 2 million US on marketing in 3 years. This included
a market survey that revealed (like others) that the average non-sailor
did NOT think dinghies were boring, but they DID think that they were
"too tippy, too complex, and too expensive".

So.....

The world's biggest sailmaker teamed with a guy from the family that
sells more racing yachts than anyone else AND who created the first
SMOD skiff type and played a big role in creating the 49er, and they paid
for the biggest marketing campaign in dinghies, and the result was that
they found that non-sailing people did NOT want to go crashing in a skiff
type.

Based on that, they made a boat that (until a corporate takeover) out-
sold all other dinghies in the world.

Put your hand up anyone who reckons they know more about selling
sailing than North Sails or the creators of the J/24, J/22, J/105, J/35, etc.
BTW, the Johnstones also sold Laser, Windsurfer and Sunfish at their
peak.

Interestingly, the world's biggest yacht builders and the biggest dinghy
builders don't get into the crash-and-burn stuff.

As far as the "show it crashing and they will come" argument - that's what
windsurfing thought, and sales are allegedly 8% as big as they were
before windsurfing got into that mindset.

Once again, the fascinating thing is that what no one from the "crashes
bring
new sailors" side has ever been able to do, is show a single shred of any
objective data to the debate. Not one, and I've been asking for it for
years....If you can't show ANY proof, you're talking BS mumbo-jumbo
IMHO. May as well try to sell sailing according to horoscopes.

If that point of view is so correct, why is 'extreme' sailing so small? Why
are 'extreme' sports so small? Stuff-all people do bungy jumping, or run
with the bulls or race cars.....most people go walking, or fishing, or play
cricket. The logic of those who demand that sailing follows SMALLER
sports down their particular dead end escapes me.

Did one of the pioneers of the SMOD skiff,
a member of (arguably) the most successful marketing family in sailboat
racing, and the biggest sailmaker in the world get it wrong, or did those
who still cannot provide ANY objective evidence get it wrong?

BTW, Peter Johnstone now sells carbon cats, because he likes it - but he
doesn't think they will appeal to the masses.






Edited by Chris 249

It seems like the Spanish are taking this to the Court for Arbitration in Sport, having had their appeal turned down.  At least, that's how I understand it from a poster on the sailjuice site.

The Italians lose the protest, so the Danes keep the gold.

Originally posted by laser4000 And just when we thought it was all over... Protest 75 49ers ITA / ES vs. Race Committee, DEN & RC requested to attend.

I guess the Italians are peeved, that they tactically didnt know that they sailed against the danes, but whats the problem for the spanish?