I have been sailing for 30 years, cats for a decade and seriously addicted to the sport for the past 3 years.
I never realized there even was sailing at the Olympics before this year.

If they want to make the sport more exciting, expand spectator interest and expand the sport in general... they may want to better promote it.

The coverage was horrible! I searched the website “rewind” and never found ANY cats, except the medal round. There was no TV mentions/coverage in any way that i saw (and i watched a good deal of the coverage on nbc).

It seemed there was 1000's of hours of boxing, and other sports like Men's Field Hockey.. but no sailing... surely there are more sailors then male field hockey players ... right? Hours of ping pong (which I actually enjoyed for 10 minutes) but i never saw a single mention of sailing.

Anyway... i was very disappointed to struggle to see any sailing... even if it wasn’t multi-hull... i would have enjoyed seeing the skiff's or anything.

Come on man! You didn't enjoy watching syncronized diving or rythmic gymnastics <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I deleted this from my original post, because i thought it might diminish the sincerity of my thoughts... in my world there are only 2 sports i want to see... sailing and women's volleyball <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You'll do well on the Sailing Anarchy forum.

Sailing isn't as much a spectator sport as it is a participant sport. I kind of like it that way...

You'll never get the average Joe 'Merican to appreciate this sport because most of the landmass is not coastal in nature, so there aren't as many places to sail (versus, say, basketball courts).

Also, sailing involves tactics as much as skill and technology. Regattas require figuring out place standings rather than "who's still standing", so our buddy Joe won't understand how GBR placed first in the "medal race" but didn't win the gold medal.

Joe likes 'em to go fast and crash often. IF Joe has seen sailing, it's probably been really slow Flying Scotts or cruising boats going around in a triangle at his local fishin' hole. Joe thinks multihulls are "hobies" and skiffs are "dem funny boats"

Media follows the money, and spectators follow the media.

Bahh Humbug!
Sailing Good!
Beach Volleyball Good!
Mongo Like catamaran and bikini'~!!!

I wonder what it would do for the sport to have a venue that put the action right up next to the spectators on land. Very similar to the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. A man-made lake about 5-10 feet deep. Think about it for a moment... Could you imagine one-design racing around a 5K course? If the venue had decent wind with 2K straightaways. 6 lap races that take about 90 minutes? Spectators right alongside the course. Sort of blending sailing with NASCAR? They do narrow canal races in some parts of the world and indoor sailboard races with large fans.

This is what Shunyi looks like.



Would that be cool? ... Just wild brainstorm thinking.

The women's powerwalking was my favorite, it doesn't get any more exciting than watching people walk in a circle...

sm

that would rock!

Face it...
sailboat racing is complicated. Many people who sail don't know how to race. Call me stupid but I had no idea how sailboat racing worked (like, how do you start??) for the first 7 years I was sailing. So how are "average" people going to figure it out?
The tactics are hard to figure out although with modern technology it is getting easier to explain on TV if you have a good commentator.
Add the fact that it is, to a large extent, a rich man's sport.
Swimming, running, track, volleyball, football, soccer are immensely easier to figure out compared with sailing. Gymnastics are also easier to figure out - somewhat.

Unless something changes dramatically- like reaching back and forth for maximal speed and maximum pitchpoles- then sailing is never going to be televised like other sports in the olympics. This isn't going to happen and most likely shouldn't.

The problem is that the current race format isn't set up for spectating. Races take too long and it is too hard to see gains and losses between competitors with them being too far apart.

With very short races of say 5-10 mins, spectators can sit down in front of the TV for an hour and a half, see 10 or so races and they will figure it out. The scoring, the tactics, the starts, pretty much everything needed to understand sailing.

The scoring isn't hard, 1 point for first, 2 for second...easier than judged events with scores out of ten and corrections for difficulty.

Running starts where you have to fight for your spot aren't hard, NASCAR and car race restarts are nearly at that stage.

Tactics aren't hard once you can see ppl lose places for mistakes.

Unfortunately, the history of sailing isn't about short sharp bursts of speed. It has always been about feats of endurance lasting from hours to months.

I would love to see the top laser sailors in the world having 10 races a day of short, sharp and tight racing where one little mistake drops them to the back of the fleet.

What we can do is ask the race organisers to conduct a sprint series over a weekend, 20 races, no drops, doesn't really matter what the course is (ie. don't reset the marks if there is a wind shift), maybe have graded starts so there is a manageable number of competitors on the course at any time (probably 6 for cats, 10-12 for lasers).

And at the Olympics the medal race should be just the top 5 and first in wins, LIKE EVERY OTHER SPORT!

...rant over, sorry it jumped around so much...

Look at the format that iShares is using.

Ishares is good, just watched Hyeres on FOX. More of a snapshot then seriously following the racing. Mostly crashes and incidents, non sailors seem to enjoy it too.

Sailing isn't a rich mans sport anymore, crewing costs less then a football.

Television promotes sports that keep consumers staring at the box and close to spending points, the ocean just doesn't fit in to that so sailing isn't pushed on TV.

Darryn

Mongo GOOD MAN! Have right idea he does.
Olympic commentator BAD MAN. Has sucky idea of rightness in sailsport, he does. Would not recognize or even like bikini, he wouldn't. "Bikini too new a thought, invented after 1911". <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This doesn't have much to do with sailing, but I got a list of "memorable" quotes from olympic commentators (did NOT verify the source), which include:

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was Amazing.'
2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my Mother and father.'
4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some Deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'
5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think We can expect the same thing again.'
6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'
8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'
9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'


So I guess watching the Olympics (or listening to them) CAN be entertaining!

Is it just me, or is the spinnaker on a 470 really hokey? Wouldn't that boat perform a lot better with an asymetrical?

The 470 was a great boat "in it's day" but that day was in about 1985. I don't know why they are still using them, I thought the 49'r was supposed to replace it but they must have a really good lobby group (i.e. big money donations) to keep it in the games, but what about the Star?? How old (and slow) is that thing? About 100 years? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

If we're talking strictly about television (which has to equal appealing to Joe Six-Pack), then we need to forget everything we know about how sailboat races are "typically" run.

The races MUST be short. The courses MUST be simple.

Most people won't stay with a sport that takes 7 years to figure out. For a TV audience, you probably have less than 7 minutes to keep their attention.

Granted, enough people saw the movie "Wind" and can probably figure out how a long race works, but in reality, no one sits in front of a TV to watch a long race, of any kind. No one watches running marathons, but they do watch sprints, relay races, etc.

Of course, by "no one" I am referring to the vast majority of people, not active sailors. We're crazy enough to stay up until 3 am to watch a two-hour AC race.

Now, this isn't to say that ALL racing needs to go in this direction, but if we really want to be on TV, we need to change the package.

Oh, did I mention, Team Racing already meets these criteria...

Mike

Just because it's not fast or sexy doesn't mean it's not fun to sail or watch.

The Star medal race was FREAKING AWESOME! But then again I'm in the it's about the sailors not the equipment camp.

Dave, that might have been, but I couldn't find any of it to watch on line. I was just speaking in terms of keeping up with technology in the games. I agree, all the boats should be equal and it should be about the sailors, kind of like the Alter cup.

But I still think from the viewpoint of a non-sailor viewer, a faster boat (like the 49'r or Tornado) would be of more interest. Too bad the AC won't be on mega-Tri's going 40 knots, but on leaners going 11 knots. More of the same old stuff, I doubt it will draw any -new- interest from non-sailors.

Now, here is something I have thought about ever since I got into sailboat racing 30 years ago...do we really need "More People" to get into sailing? I mean, ever since I have been paying attention it seems it only appeals to about 10% (if that) of the population, and cats only appeal to maybe 10% of that, or maybe 1% of the total population, but after years of trying to introduce new people to the sport, I have come to realise people either want to sail or they don't, and no amount of us trying to make it "More Exciting" or more TV friendly, or what ever, is going to change that.

Most people are too lazy to put in the time and effort it takes to learn to sail. A quick fix like a Jet Ski or a ski boat is more what they want when it comes to spending time on the water.

But I'm ok with it, I would rather those types stayed on the Jet Ski, way over there, near the beach, than T-bone me on the starting line while trying to learn to sail.

I have found sailing is quite a lot like flying airplanes, it take some time to learn, and most people want it all, and they want it now. So both only appeal to a small percentage of the total population, that will never change, but maybe that's not a bad thing. We've all seen or read the accident reports after someone who doesn't want to take the time to learn to do it (Flying or Sailing) properly.

The Media loves a good crash and burn story, (which explains NASCAR popularity) but with Sailing or Flying, it's usually a novice who didn't take the time to learn to do it right, but WE all get painted with that "It's so hard to learn and so very UNSAFE" brush. Fk'em, let'm stay on their Jet Ski's.