What about the sailors?

Everybody seems overly concerned that sailing will die. I am pretty sure that won't ever happen. Not in SL. Not in RL. Nevertheless, here's an interesting piece from the hand of Jonas Høgh-Christensen. It's about how we develop sailing into a sport for TV - or - how we consider what we the sailors like to do.

Dreaming of summer

To put it differently: Should sailing develop into something worth watching for non-sailors or should it first and foremost develop into something that the sailors like to be part of?

Good food for thought as I lay here, - anchored somewhere south of the Blake Sea.

Me, I think it's gone to far with both the AC boats and to some degree the flying Nacra. Obviously, I reckognize the Nacra as a true athletes boat. By all means go sail it; However, some people promote changes in sailing that will favour only sailors of certain specifik physics. Like 185 and a narrow spectrum of weight. That seems unneccessary. To me it makes sense to widen our sport, not narrow it down to a few induhviduals.

No, I don't look forward to Olympics with only one type of sailors in super-athletic boats. I'd like to see several kinds of sailing, including the Finn, the Soling and other classics. They are all physically demanding, but let's not forget the tactics and all that! It might be hard to capture on TV, but it remains nonetheless the most interesting part of our sport.

Read it all over at Sailing Anarchy: Link

What's your take on it?