Sailing is not a spectator sport

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by CT249, Aug 17, 2016.

  1. The Q
    Joined: Feb 2014
    Posts: 223
    Likes: 42, Points: 28, Legacy Rep: 21
    Location: Norfolk, UK

    The Q Senior Member

    Whereas, our Week long, National Schools sailing was held in our area this year, was on our Local TV channel News more than once, and that channel reaches 5.4 million people. https://nssa.org.uk/ ( and a boy from our club, who learnt at our sailing school, came second in his class)
    and last year a reporter from the more local radio Station (population coverage 1Million) competed in the 24hour 3 Rivers race, putting out live reports regularly through the race.
     
  2. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

  3. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    There's some interesting stuff in there. Sir Coutts says "In the UK, Ben Ainslie has been a major factor.... You see the impact of that in the UK when you have got a figure like that as the team leader." That's great - because of course Sir Ben's status as a public figure in the UK relies largely on his Laser and Finn exploits. So now we know that Coutts believes that small, slow one designs can make sailors into major stars.

    Cool! So we can now reject any claims that boats like Finns and Lasers don't get enough publicity and don't make sailors into stars. Thanks Doug!

    However, it's odd to read Coutts say "If somebody had of said that to me prior to this year, that in three World Series events you’d get 500,000 spectators, I would have said: ‘No, we are not going to achieve that, that is years away!’" And yet on 23 July 2015, Sir Ben Ainslie had said "we are expecting around 460,000 spectators to descend on Portsmouth over the course of the four days". Of course they got around half that in 2015, and around 1/3 of that in 2016. So it seems that the upshot is that not even the legends of the America's Cup can get the spectator predictions right. That's an interesting factor to take into account when they claim that sailing can be a great spectator sport.
     
  4. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Q, that's great to hear of accessible sailing getting publicity at your club.
    FF, we had the same sort of situation at my old club and my new club.
     
  5. The Q
    Joined: Feb 2014
    Posts: 223
    Likes: 42, Points: 28, Legacy Rep: 21
    Location: Norfolk, UK

    The Q Senior Member

    Thanks CT249, as I type, on National Radio, the Chris Evans Show ( the most popular show in the country) has been having a 10 minutes piece Advocating sailing and canoeing. He has 9.5 Million Listeners out of a UK possible of about 65 Million.
    it all helps...
     
  6. pdwiley
    Joined: Jun 2008
    Posts: 1,004
    Likes: 86, Points: 48, Legacy Rep: 933
    Location: Hobart

    pdwiley Senior Member

    Time to take a chill pill, Doug, and this advice comes from someone with zero interest in racing at all, even less in totally impractical toys like foilers.....

    PDW
     
  7. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Foilers

    ==================
    Thank you so much, Mr. Wiley. Sorry, but I think your advice is poor and based ,at least partially,on a false premise.
     
  8. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

  9. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Olympic Foilers

    Lange also said this: " We need young people. To change the class, that is fine – if we are to go flying. I love going faster through the water. But if I take back my old Nacra, and they give me a brand new foiling one for the same price, I am happy."
    He's concerned about the costs of changing an existing class but I guess that has to be weighed against the costs of including a whole new class.
    Foilers offer the highest level of sailing performance and it seems to me that's what the Olympic's and Olympic Class boats should be all about.
    Working out the costs* is a problem but if he's not careful the Nacra 17 -that is not a foiler-might be replaced by another boat entirely that is a foiler-like the Flying Phantom, Whisper or Nacra FCS.
    Kite foilers are a maybe and should be included, in my opinion. A one design foiler like the Waszp, UFO or FLO should be in.

    * This is ludicrous in terms of costs for a so-called one design: “Now we invest a lot of money in these Nacra 17's. We have for boats. We have 15 mainsails, some mainsails we only use for one hour, we have four spinnakers with the flag, a couple of them we only use for a couple of hours".
     
  10. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Well, we know what the vast majority of young people are doing - buying cheaper and slower boats. It may well be that he meant that we need young people, who tend to have less cash, so we can't keep on making them throw away their kit.

    It is sort of ironic (but great) that the boat that was brought in partly because it was said it would attract the kids had a 54 year old winning skipper. Probably pretty predicatable - most kids don't want to sail extreme boats and can't afford them.
     
  11. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Are you calling the non-foiling Nacra 17 "extreme"?
     
  12. CT249
    Joined: May 2003
    Posts: 1,449
    Likes: 191, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 215
    Location: Sydney Australia

    CT249 Senior Member

    Quite a few people do. "Extreme" is an extremely loose term these days; it's changed a lot from its original French mountain climbing derivation.The point isn't the term, but that one of the basic ideas of the Nacra 17 was that it was going to fit into the "high speed boat to attract the media and youth" slot.
     
  13. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    "extreme"

    When a term like that is used to describe a boat like the NACRA 17-or most foilers for that matter, it's unfortunate and demeaning to the whole sport.
     
  14. Corley
    Joined: Oct 2009
    Posts: 3,781
    Likes: 196, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 826
    Location: Melbourne, Australia

    Corley epoxy coated

    Well what do you call them then? They are not a Hobie Wave :). The Nacra 17 is a pretty technical craft and challenging for the crew to sail well. I think the term Extreme does encapsulate the class pretty well they are twitchy beasts to master, I'd love to have a go at one though I reckon my crew would have to be pretty light :)
     

  15. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    "extreme"

    Thats a good question: what do those that call a non-foiling NACRA 17 "extreme" call a foiling NACRA 17??
     
Loading...
Forum posts represent the experience, opinion, and view of individual users. Boat Design Net does not necessarily endorse nor share the view of each individual post.
When making potentially dangerous or financial decisions, always employ and consult appropriate professionals. Your circumstances or experience may be different.