I think that if we want to make sailing more exciting and spectator and TV friendly, we have to make it look more like motocross. Have short courses in very close to shore (and to heck with the shifty winds).

Have lots of fast reaching and lots of crowded, crash-and-burn mark roundings. Forget all the nuances of rules and tactics -- just pure boat speed and excitement. Have a crowded starting line with a reaching start and a short reach to the first rounding mark, so everybody gets there together, just like motocross.

From there you can have your weather leg and downwind leg if you want, and you can set it as marks to port or marks to starboard, depending on where the wind is coming from. Either the windward mark or the leeward mark will be inshore (depending upon the wind direction), but the finish should ALWAYS be back at the starting point, right near shore where spectators can see it close up. And if the whole course is short, you can have it two times around or three times around, depending upon wind conditions. This gives spectators on shore and media a lot more opportunity for filming each race during the most exciting portions of it.

If the course is set up so that the race starts on a reach and finishes on a reach, so much the better from the spectator standpoint. Then the boats can fly hulls and look spectacular coming in to the finish, just like the motocross guys do their twists in the air when coming in to the finish.

This kind of thing was done effectively with the Formula 40 racing and is now being done with the Volvo Extremes.

We have to get less serious and elitist about sailing and make it look like more fun and easier for the public to understand.

Reaching is the fastest, most exciting point of sail, and that is what the spectators on shore want to see. The "chess game" aspect of sailing, with all the attendant rules and tactics, is not media or spectator friendly.

I think we can still have all that on other parts of the course but also have very exciting starts and finishes along shore for the benefit of the spectators.