Sailing as a spectator sport

:D:D:D

FWIW I think that sailing and cycling are probably the the two worst spectator sports.
Sailing because I can never undertand what is really going on.
Cycling because you wait hours for a peleton to go passed. Then everyone says "Wow, they were fast"....and that's it.

Both are better on TV
 
Sailing in the Olympics was so-so. There were some good camera angles and helpful graphics but we never saw whole races and it is often the build-up of tension and tactics that makes a race exciting, as with cricket.

Good production can make many improbable sports interesting for a viewer. The old Channel 4 Tour de France programmes were excellent, as was the sumo wrestling, and the fencing at the Olympics was superb. In ye olden days we used to watch golf and even snooker in black and white on tiny screens, so anything is possible.
 
It's one of the classics isnt it Flaming. Admittedly usually round keels rather than with the spinny halyard but I guess we've all done it. Just like raising the spinny wrong way up. Or rounding the buoy on the wrong side - I once met another boat coming round the same mark from the opposite side. We spent so much time shouting , yelling laughing and making facetious comments that we did poorly even rounding correctly.

And then of course there is the boats getting hooked together cock up - last year , someone else's boom over our guard rails with an old fixing on the bottom collecting our wire. Again much shouting and yelling as well as a decent sized bill.

But I think my fondest memory is of an upwind start against a strongish spring tide on a passage race. The wind was no more than f2 so when we were over the start line 10 mins before the start and with the wind dying we just failed to get back across. So when the start came we were anchored 5 yards down course in the middle of the start line facing the rest of them just managing to beat over the line. I cant remember how long it took us to cross the line and start but it was a fair time. However the upshot was that the rest of the fleet were carried by the tide past the downtide mark whilst we, well behind them, just reached the mark as the tide turned. We instantly went from last to first and won the race. You would have enjoyed the banter in the bar afterwards.

I always reckon that sailing like sex is not a spectator sport. To enjoy it you have to do it.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
And then of course there is the boats getting hooked together cock up - last year , someone else's boom over our guard rails with an old fixing on the bottom collecting our wire. Again much shouting and yelling as well as a decent sized bill.
Click to expand...

Done that with a spinnaker pole on a guardwire. Didn't do the spinnaker pole much good....

For most of one season there was a fair size bit of spinnaker attached to the top of one of the Solent race marks. Must have been painful for the boat responsible to sail round it every weekend!
 
Some of the most watchable racing is the helicopter views where you get a real feel for the tactics being deployed and can see the effects from a perspective that is easy to judge.
 
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