Yachts & Yachting – April 2018

42 Yachts & Yachting April 2018 yachtsandyachting.co.uk

Ben Ainslie

America’s Cup skipper and

five-time Olympic medallist

We’ve seen a big change

in the sport recently, with

the developments of high

performance dinghies, but what

we are seeing right now is a shift in

high performance yachts and big

boats and that’s really exciting.

The technology and development

and the sailing skills around this style

of racing certainly can lead high profile

events such as the America’s Cup,

the Volvo Ocean Race and record

breaking offshore challenges to

greater heights and a wider audience

• which is really important for the
  sport to grow. It becomes that much
  more exciting for young people to be
  involved with, to watch and to follow.
  At the same time, we collectively
  need to do a better job to be able
  to pull all these different elements
  of the sport together and I think we
  need to work harder for these events
  to really complement each other.
  By doing this, we would get
  more continuity in the events and
  create a more stable commercial
  background to build on.

Helena Lucas

Paralympic gold medallist

There is a need for more

foiling classes at the

Games to increase more

media interest around

our sport; drones and on-board

cameras will really help sailing

broadcast to a wider audience.

I can also see the format of racing

changing to more stadium style

short courses and close to shore.

However the traditional classes

still have their place and must not be

forgotten. Many people are attracted

to sailing for the tactical aspect of

our sport. One of the special things

about sailing due to the wide range

of classes out there, is you are never

limited by age or ability to go sailing.

Ian Walker

Double Olympic medallist,

Volvo Ocean Race winner

Sailing needs to adapt

to the new demands of

the modern generation.

The average person will have more

competition for their attention and

less time and less disposable income.

I think sailing needs to work more

on what it represents socially and

what it can offer both physically,

mentally and culturally.

I see more club-owned boats, shorter

races, increased focus on social and

participation over hardcore racing.

Safety will be an increasing concern as

boats get faster and more extreme.

Nick Thompson

Two-times Laser

world champion

Our sport is difficult to

convey as a spectator

sport; unfortunately the

huge number of variables that go in

to winning a race are the things that

make our sport so fantastic. The better

we learn how to simply explain these,

the more people will find interest.

The America’s Cup has brought

much betterways to convey what is

happening on the water: we must keep

pushing this forward. Fast, short racing is

no doubt exciting to watch. A 10 second

clip of two foiling boats close racing will

see much more social media interest

than an hour of slow boat racing, but

we must be careful not to alienate top

level racing from the majority of other

sailing at local clubs around the world.

We already have a stigma that

sailing is an expensive sport, but it

isn’t and shouldn’t be the case.

Moving forwards I can see foiling

becoming more prominent as the boats

become cheaper and easier to race;

however Ihope this isn’t seen as the

‘saviour’ of sailing and instead time and

effort is put in to the fundamentals –

getting more people on the water, and

finding betterways to explain our sport.

Nick Craig

Multiple national, European

and World champion

We need to make sailing

less time intensive and more

accessible. Hopefully in the

future, many more sailing clubs will own

their own attractive boats so sailors

can participate without the financial

and time investment needed to own a

boat. Being able to arrive at a club and

be on the water in minutes will help

sailing compete with other less time

intensive sports. That may mean clubs

employing more professional staff.

Foiling is on the cutting edge with a

lot of growth in this area. However, back

in the 1990s, asymmetric sailing was

the hot new thing but the traditional

classes quickly bounced back. There

is room for the continued breadth of

classes; those that are well run and

up to date will continue to thrive.

What could the

future look like?

FUTURE PROOFING SPECIAL REPORT

Those at the top of our sport share their

views on how sailing should move forward

Above from top

Fun is a key

component

to keeping

youngsters

interested; the

next America’s

Cup promises

to be dramatic;

foiling is

increasingly

available to all

Share your views

on the future

of our sport

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