12ft Skiffs...

Just a thought but is it just me or is dinghy sailing a rubbish spectator sport?  And i don't mean to get into some big argument as seems to be going on elsewhere, i absolutely love sailing i just don't think that its a very good spectator sport.  If you look at things like you tube the only things that seem to have been watched regularily are the spectacular capsizes or bits getting broken.  Sadly i think its one thing to be blitzing along on the wire wondering how long before you bin it in, but watching it from the side theres only so many times you can watch boats planning around a course.

Nice thought Ross but I don't think so!

Windsurfing went down the same route and even had Red Bull as a sponsor. Slalom courses are all downwind blasts with carve gybes at each mark. It still sells a lot of windsurfing videos but windsurfing on the telly? Don't recall any recently.

I'm not sure whether people care whether sailing is a rich man's sport or not. Motor racing is extremely expensive but people identify with it and go watch. Sailing struggles because you have to have done it to understand/appreciate what you are watching. So little chance of the spectacle appealing to the non-sailors.

Interesting discussion thread. Perhaps I could interject to make a couple of points (seeing as it was me who had that video produced and brought the 12's into the UK)...

1./ With regard to TV et-al, there are now so many channels that they are all clambering for "good content", however this doesn't just mean that because something's exteme or fast that it will get airtime. There are a lot of ingredients that go into making something televisable (is that a real word?).

2./ Next year we are planning to run a series of joint events with the 12s and 18s, and will be doing corporate hospotality for sponsors and their guests. You'll all be very welcome to come along and watch. Interestingly one of the things we've been looking at is the course that we use to make the racing more exciting and easier for non-sailing people to understand (we agree with the points made about the sport being too technical).

3./ Ross, once you've mastered your Cherub, give us a call and we'll get you out in a 12. What Iain says is right, and although chucking big rags onto a Cherub will kind-of work, it's really not the best solution. Also, please bear in mind that there is and always has been an open invitation to ANY Cherub owner to bring their boat along to a 12 meeting and race with us (and if you win, we do give you the trophy, as happened at Datchet this year).

Bob