The Sport of Sailing

Whenever I think about sailing, I think about how to improve it. Let's face it, sailing is not a major sport(in the US). Why not? Well, it's just not appealing, accessable, interesting, exciting, expensive, etc. You can't go in the backyard and just tack the boat around for a few minutes with friends. I think one of the main problems with marketing sailing to non-sailors is how they can watch it. Watching a sailing race from shore is one of the most boring things I can image. Especially since most races are at least a couple of hundred yards offshore. Ok then, go on a boat. Well, this is both expensive(unless you own a boat), but you still get a bad vantage point. It's difficult to explain the racecourse from a boat. Ok, TV! Helicopters, planes, satellites! Well, yes. But then you're not even there. You're not involved. You don't feel the wind. It's just not the same. Plus, the course is still hard to understand. So how do you make it easy for everyone to understand and enjoy? Enter my brilliant idea. I got this idea from the London Boat Show where they had windsurfing races/jumps indoors. It was pretty cool. So I started thinking, how cool would it be to sail indoors? That's the genius to marketing sailing to the masses. But then I took it a step further.




Imagine a baseball field like arena, full with water. Sailboats race a course around the bases with controlled wind, waves, etc. This way, fans could watch the race from a great viewpoint, height, location, comfort. The course would be easy to understand, and the regatta could be held any day of the week, any time of day! Especially now that they are putting roofs on these fields, anything is possible. Imagine having an indoor skiff race in a 20 knot breeze while outside it's dead calm, or outside it's stormy. Now, I understand that this is completely impossible. The engineering, the financial cost, etc. But wow, wouldn't that be fun. Anyway, that's my solution to the sailing markering delima. What do you think?

BMW Oracle snags Coutts

Well, it's official, Russell Coutts is the new Skipper/CEO/Head Bad Ass of BWM Oracle. This gives me a lot of hope going into the next AC(probably in 09). It's going to be good news for the American Syndicate. Coutts is an amazing racer. He just won the Farr 40 World Championship and is a 3 time AC winner(most recently with Allinghi in 03). With this amazing skipper at the helm, and their incredible budget, there is no reason why BMW Oracle shouldn't win the next AC.

ESPN Sailing Coverage!

Check it out, ESPN U is playing Gary Jobsons coverage of the College Sailing Nationals from May. Check the website for broadcast times. I watched it today and the coverage seemed pretty good. It's definetly not marketed towards non sailors which is good and bad. The on boat cameras make it worth watching though.

The Sport of Sailing

This crosses my mind just about every time I think about sailing. How can we make sailing more appealing to the US audience? Any ideas? I'll post some of my own shortly. I've been working on a great idea for a while.

57 Days Until...

Hours and hours of roll tacking practice

58 Days Until...

Close Starts and Close Losses.

College Sailing Boats?

Do you like the current boats that the ISCA sails with? 420s, FJs, etc.? I personally do not. I don't think they're hard enough to sail. I would like to see at least a trapeze boat. Why not use the club 420? It would be a pretty simple upgrade for the schools(that's the main concern) and it would make the sport seem more fun(trapeze, bright spinn) and it WOULD be more fun. I really think that they should move to the 470 because then the sailors could make an easy transition from college to olympics or at least one-design. Most sailors go through all of college never flying a spinnaker(at least in ICSA stuff), and never flying on a trap. This isn't good for the sport. How much more expensive would it be to upgrade the class to club 420's? What do you think?

Kwik-E-Mart

That's right, for those of you who are out of the loop. 7-11 has converted a dozen of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts in promotion for the Simpsons Movie. Since I live in Dallas, I was lucky enough to go to this Kwik-E-Mart, and yes, that man did check me out, and he did say "thank you, come again".
http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/dmnphoto/index.html?nvid=157181

In sailing news, The World Championships are going on now for Olympic Qualifying. I don't follow the Olympic classes too much right now, but I suppose I should note it. What's your favorite Olympic Class Boat? Mine's the 49er, by far. Do you think they should add any other classes to the Olympics? Perhaps some large keelboats?

Well now that the Swiss have successfully defended the Cup, they are making decisions for the future of the AC. They are currently deciding if they will host it in Valencia again, and what the new boat will be. Yes, that's right, there will be a NEW boat. 80 feet, harder to sail, and faster. YES!!!

What would you add to the AC rules for number 33? Bring back the nationality requirments? 2 years between the cups? More international acts? I say yes to all three. Although, I do like having the cup every 4 years becuase it gives smaller, new to sailing countries time to build a campaign. I also like no nationality requirments for the same reason. I understand both sides of the issue, but come on. Let's keep the tradition.

A&M Galveston

Congratulations A&M Galveston for ending the season ranked! SEiSA is known for being a very easy district to both compete in and compete against. Why is SEISA so under developed. Well, because they are just that, under developed. Very little school support or money is given to the teams. Only Galveston actually has a coach! It's tough to compete and learn about sailing with no coach.
But you could also say these teams have the most fun. The regattas aren't as competitive as the other districts and it's a lot of fun to go to. If you've never been to a SEISA regatta and party, you should. It's a great college experience.
Questions for SEISA:
1) Can they step up their competitiveness in the national spotlight?
2) Can they increase size to increase berths and quality of teams?
3) Can some more of the schools achieve varsity status and receive better funding and/or a coach?
4) Is it possible for Galveston to be ranked preseason and stay ranked the whole season with losing their main sailor(hugh haggerty)
5) Can the middle teams be more consistent in the regattas(A&M, Tulane, Texas,UNO)
SEISA is alot of fun and a great sailing district. They've just got to step up their sailing skills to be taken seriously on the national scale. Come on SEISA, let's see some trophys this year!

No more rain!

Oh to be on the water again....soon.

Allinghi Wins!

What an eventful AC! I really wish the kiwis could have brought it back to 3 or 4, but, it was still a good first 4 races. Congrats to all teams, I just hope USA puts up a better attempt next year. Maybe they can get Coutts, although I'm pretty sure he's forming his own team. I feel like if we had a better skipper/helmsman, we would've gotten farther. Oh well.
In college news, teams are on break for the summer. Soon we'll be having a good preseason look at the teams, or at least once I give up a day to research all the information(the stuff isn't on ESPN!) In the mean time, get out there and enjoy the summer. Practice hard, and prepare for the new season!

America's Cup

Well, now that college sailing is on the offseason, we'll move to more current topics. Going on right now in sailing? Well we've got the America's Cup, Olympic trials will be heating up soon, and many other offshore races. I happened to catch the America's Cup LV Finals and semis so we'll recap on that.
Well this being an American based blog, we'll start with BMW Oracle. I was shocked and very upset at the performance. Why did BMW Oracle do so bad in the LV semis? Many will blame Dickson, and sure, he deserves some blame. But perhaps it was similar to the mavs downfall in the nba playoffs. It just happened. Spithill rocked the socks off the prestart and Dickson really didn't have a chance. As we sailors knkow, it's all about the start. The stat that says the most: BMW Oracle never led around a mark. In the whole series. That is a little pathetic. Nothing against LR, but come on. Not a single mark, and you're the favored team?
Meanwhile, the kiwis are dominating. Completely. 5-0 in the Finals. Now they ride in with confidence, motivation, and skill. It's turning out to be a very exciting AC regatta! Who will come out ahead in the end? Well we'll see who Allinghi pick as their helmsman. My guess, Ed Baird. He's their best shot at winning again.
So until the college season heats up again, I guess we'll just have to keep scouring the professional racing circuit trying to find interesting stories.

New Rankings

Here are the new rankings:

COED                 (prev rank)
  1. St. Mary's           (1)
  2. Charleston          (10)
  3. Dartmouth           (4)
  4. Yale                (6)
  5. Boston Coll          (2)
  6. Hobart/WmSmith     (7)
  7. Harvard            (5)
  8. UC/Irvine           (14)
  9. Georgetown          (3)
10. Brown               (11)
11. Navy                (9)
12. Stanford            (8)
13. USC                (12)
14. South Florida         (19)
15. Roger Williams       (13)
16. Tufts               (15)
17. Rhode Island          (16)
18. Old Dominion          (17)
19. MIT                 (18)
20. Texas A&M Galv     ----
Also receiving votes:
Hawaii

WOMEN               (prev rank)
  1. St. Mary's           (1)
  2. Charleston          (2)
  3. Stanford           (3)
  4. Navy              (4)
  5. Harvard            (9)
  6. UC/Irvine          (11)
  7. Boston Coll         (6)
  8. Tufts             (5)
  9. Boston Univ       (12)
10. Georgetown        (7)
11. Yale               (8)
12. Wisconsin          ----
13. Dartmouth          (10)
14. Old Dominion        (15)
15. Hobart/WmSmith     (14)

Talk about domination, St. Mary's. Good job Charleston moving up though.

Championships in Review

Well, I supppose I should start out by covering the recent championships. Here were the winners:
Women's Nationals: St. Mary's
Co-ed Nationals:College of Charleston
Team Racing Nationals:St. Mary's

What an amazing trip for St. Mary's!

So who suprised us at nationals the most? College of Charleston. They really stepped it up in the post season this year, taking their second co-ed title in 2 years. Coming into the regatta ranked 10th and then taking the first really shows a lot about their teams skills both on and off the water.

Coming up next, a look at next season. Who will come out ahead in each district and and will make a stand at next years nationals!
-carson

College Sailing

Welcome to my new blog dedicated to college sailing. This sport gets little interest from...well just about anyone, and I thought that giving it a good blog would be a good way to use up some of my energy. If you have any tips or ideas, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I'll be getting together some ideas and hopefully putting up some good information in due time.
-carson