Racing sailing boats is a great sport so why is it not watched more?

Question

It rquires intelligence, ingenuity, luck, is fun, competitive and usually a team effort. Yet we only see football, darts, snooker etc which is rather always the same, most of the time, on television.

Answer 1

I agree that we should see it. We do sail race and there are times when it is very slow, but it takes intelligence to use the wind to its utmost. I have heard sail racing described as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. We race Flying Scots and it is a team effort. We have also raced 30 footers. Maybe they could take the tapes of the Americas Cup and condense it to a shorter time. They did broadcast the Volvo Global challenge on PBS.

Answer 2

i agree. but like you said, it requires intelligence.

Answer 3

During a race, the coarse is usually restricted to the sailors who are racing. This is done as a matter of safety, but also limits the amount of video-photographers who can do a good job of filming the event. The logistics of placing land cameras in a location that is favorable, is difficult too. Most of the waterfront, in areas that allow races, is privet property or too expensive in permits needed to film such an event. Waterfront filming permits are very expensive costing in excess of $50.000 for 4 hours. You can thank our greedy local governments for that.

     Filming by helicopter is best at these types of races to get the good close up shots, but helicopters cause distraction, wind, and noise the sailors don't like.

     Sailboat racing is a sport for an elite group of rich people and yacht club members. Many of these type of people prefer not to be in the spotlight of the media when their having fun racing. Good question.

Answer 4

I'm personally not a racing sailboat fan.

But i respect and agree with your opinion and believe it applies to other sports and activity's to.

I love fishing / angling as do millions around the world. It is in fact the 4th most per sued recreational pastime in THE WORLD, but yet, any of the million pound major events are not covered by main channels.

It would seem, that unless a sport contains at least two fights and half a gallon of spilt blood every five minutes, the main channels are not interested.

Instead we have to resort to obscure channels on satellite or cable.

Maybe the way to get it on the BBC is to turn up at the big events and start a riot and streak in front of the camera while swigging from a half bottle of mad dog.

Worth a try, dont ya think? :)

Answer 5

Cos its fecking boring

Answer 6

If you think about it as a spectator sport, you'll realize that the watchers on shore see the boats line up, hear the starting gun, and then everyone heads for the horizon and vanishes for a space of several hours (or longer, depending on the race - for example, the Swiftsure) and there's nothing to watch until a long time later, when the boats come heading back to the finish line. It would be much more exciting if they had a small, triangular course so they would be easily visible from shore during the whole race. The sports you mentioned are all easily visible to the spectator, who can understand and appreciate the special plays and the subtleties of the game.

Answer 7

While sail boat racing is a great sport demanding all the skills you listed, most people seem to prefer watching sports that they have participated in, at one time or another.   More people have participated in little league baseball, football, basketball, tennis, golf, etal. growing up, but how many people have been actively involved in sailing?  I don't have statistics, but I venturing to guess that the percentage of our society that participates in sailing is far less than most popular sports.  In addition, TV networks are going to broadcast the sports which will attract the most viewers, and advertising revenue.

Answer 8

You left out the fact that it is boring to watch!!