Rod Davis
How to get… where exactly?
OK, boys, where are we going? Yachting is at a crossroads, a battle of tradition versus the future. Yeah, I know we have heard that many times before. But the fact is the development in sail boats
from 1960 to 2010, half a century, has been pedestrian-like compared to the last decade.
Better materials, engineering and systems have allowed mind-boggling advances. Bigger, faster, cooler. Foiling is the rage and where lots of people want to be. But that
is not for everyone. The bigger sector, four or five times bigger, of sailing has nothing to do with foiling. They might have passing interest as a windsurfer or catamaran foils by, but it is not ‘their’ world any more than an electric racecar would be in a classic car show. But somehow we (we… that would be the Royal ‘we’, as in all of
yachting) have to come up with where we are going. And it won’t be just one target. The very strength of sailing comes from its diversity and the ability to include all ages and genders. Where yachting is going in the next 15 years must be a multi-
pronged plan. It’s not just foiling vs keel boats, or Olympics vs Wednes- day night racing. Yachting includes all of it, the plan for the future involves first figuring out what the future will look like. Starting with where we want to go. How we get there… that comes later. Before we set out defining where we want to go let’s keep our eyes
open for a few traps. The two big ones are fake news and self-interest. Fake news, as the name implies, is not always very factual… but it also includes all the press releases, statistics and opinions that give you one side of the story as if it was the only side of the story. More often than not it’s about stirring up emotion rather than offering explanations or even solutions. Self-interest, well, we all know people who try to dress up their
self-interest to look like the sport’s interest as well. Effective, for sure, but perhaps not in the greater interest!
26 SEAHORSE OK, let’s look at some possible prongs on the future yachting
pitchfork. In no particular order: l Cater for the sailors we currently have l Stay in the Olympics l Attract new people to the sport (grow the sport) l Rules and structure that is not cumbersome and can be applied as universally as possible
Cater for the sailors we already haveThe average age of the weekend sailor is increasing, it must be close to 40-50 years old, perhaps older. Now that could be wrong (meaning it’s not really fake news because of the disclosure), but it is my personal observation. For these sailors (of which I am now one) racing sail boats is both competition and social. Each one is racing as hard as they can, but enjoying the camaraderie is more important to the end ‘result’. If it was only about racing and then packing up and disappearing,
the attraction goes way down. Be it the Fastnet race, evening racing, local one-design racing or the Sunday club race. Interaction with team members, other competitors and the volunteers who make it all happen, that is the glue that holds it all together and will make it so people want to come back. A key point for the future of sailing.
Stay in the OlympicsThis prong includes all elite and top-level sailing. I fear that if yachting does not remain an Olympic sport having the lure of Olympic medals we will lose the inspiration of a lot of young sailors. Not that everyone will go to the Olympics, any more than every young basketball player will play in the NBA. But the Olympics produces the sailing heros, Elvstrøm, Grael, Ainslie, Scheidt and Kendall. That in turn makes sailing ‘sticky’. And that stickiness not only attracts new sailors, it keeps many existing ones sailing. (We have to do way better at hanging onto the new faces… but that is another column). Right now we need the Olympics and elite sailing as our poster pin-ups. I have to make a short personal comment on World Sailing’s last
MAX RANCHI
JACQUES VAPILLON/ALEA
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