‘I don’t want to watch sailing with a calculator’ – Matthew Sheahan on Olympic Sailing for Spectators

Matthew Sheahan

Is Olympic sailing heading in the right direction as a showcase of the sport – for both competitors and spectators? Matthew Sheahan assesses.

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How was your summer season? If you went to a major event like Olympic sailing, did you wonder where everyone else was? Cowes Week seemed to stir up plenty of debate as to why numbers haven’t returned to those of a few years ago. Among the many views, and setting that of cost to one side, a common one was how seven days of racing (plus the additional ones to cover getting there and back), doesn’t fit with people’s busy lifestyles any more.

If you weren’t at a regatta maybe you were watching the Olympic sailing? What did you think of the sailing in Marseille? I ask because this year I was surprised at how many people voiced criticisms that the Games format isn’t as fair as it could be and isn’t showing our sport in its best light.

Olympic Sailing for the spectators

Spectator sailing and the medal race system has been a source of debate since the day it was announced as the new configuration for Olympic sailing. Introduced for the 2008 Beijing Games to make sailing more appealing to a wider audience while making the sport of winning medals more dramatic, we were told that this was required to secure sailing’s future as an Olympic sport. Carry on as it was and the threat was that sailing could lose its place in the Games.

So, when it comes to attracting a bigger audience, making sailing look cool and securing the sport’s future in the biggest show on earth, has the exercise worked? I’m not sure it has.

Yes, there have been some developments that may have helped draw a bigger audience. The fact that half the Olympic classes are now on foils brings the sport bang up to date. As we’ve seen in the America’s Cup, doing 30 knots in a single figure breeze is pretty impressive and gets people asking how it’s possible before they even think of asking how the racing works. But how long does this interest last?

I’m all in favour of foiling developments and believe strongly that this discipline is here to stay. But in my opinion the relative lack of movement, when compared to traditional classes like the 470 or the ILCA, makes it harder to relate to and therefore less appealing in the long run.

But that’s not my beef. Compromising the sport for the sake of spectators is. Bringing the medal race course close to shore where the breeze is often lighter and more flukey makes delays more likely and TV broadcasters less likely to commit to putting sailing on screen. And when they do show it, often it’s not at its best.

It seems odd that with helicopters, drones, trackers and superb race course overlays to hand, if ever there was a time that we could put the racing where it was best placed to deliver a spectacle, it is now. Instead, we bring it close to the shore in front of a tiny spectator crowd where the conditions risk compromising the racing.

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A scoring system reshuffle?

I’m also not convinced the Olympic medal scoring system always brings the best talent to the top. World Sailing’s own description of the medal race format goes like this: ‘the double points on offer mean there is usually jeopardy heading into that final race. As a result, it provides all the drama as gold medals swap hands, podium positions disappear and calculators are kept at the ready.’

Is that really what makes racing exciting and engaging? I thought it was skill, tactics and tenacity. I don’t watch the track and field events to see people fall over – I want to see them succeed, break records and deliver outstanding performances. And I don’t want to watch with a calculator.

Setting national pride to one side, Emma Wilson’s result in the womens’ iQFoil medal race after a dominant performance beforehand is a good example. Yes, misjudging a layline cost her dearly, but so too did not being out on the course beforehand. Minimising the number of races before the grand final might work for running, but it’s a distinct disadvantage on the water.

An accumulated points buffer saved the Dutch team in the 49erFX when they made a serious error at the finish, so why not for Wilson? An all or nothing points system doesn’t do justice to a sport that can be influenced by uncontrollable variations in the weather. Plus, how can our sport be understood by viewers who are new to it when we have such different ways of deciding a medal for no obvious reason?

I wholeheartedly congratulate everyone who won a medal and it made for some great racing, but I’m not sure this Olympic cycle did our sport many favours in the long run.

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