If you went up to someone random on the street and asked them what they thought Australia’s top five most successful sports were, they would not mention sailing.
If you went up to someone random on the street and asked them to name three sailors who represent Australia in the Olympics, they wouldn’t be able to name one.
If you went up to someone on the street and asked them if they knew anything about sailing, they would most likely say, “Yeah, you know, you just sit on a boat pulling some ropes and drinking champagne.”
And if they say this, then you know they actually have no idea what sailing is.
Sailing is one of the most extreme, intense and tiring sports in the world and if you somewhat followed it, you would know that Australia is easily one of the top if not the best sailing country in the world.
In the past two Olympics – 2016 in Rio and 2012 in London – sailing has been the most efficient sport at getting medals.
In 2012, out of the eight opportunities to win medals, Australia got four medals with three of them being gold and the other silver.
In 2016, out of the seven chances to win medals, Australia again got four medals with one of them being gold and the other three being silver.
Yet somehow, no one was able to recognize how successful Australia were in the sailing and focused more on the swimming or the cycling or athletics.
Tom Burton won gold in sailing at the 2016 Olympics. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
You don’t have to only look at Australia’s results in the Olympics to understand how good our country is at the sport.
For example, in the last two America’s Cups, Oracle Team USA’s outfit has been made up of primarily Australians and they won it in 2013 in the 34th America’s Cup and came runners-up in 2017 in the 35th America’s Cup.
Many will ask, ‘Well why weren’t the Australians sailing on the Australian boat instead of the American boat?’
Maybe because no one in Australia actually cares or knows anything about the sport so no one supports Australia in an America’s Cup campaign.
And if Australia did end up having a boat and competing, I would put my money on them winning.
Many people who follow sailing think that Australian and world sailing events should be broadcasted on national television.
With the number of Australians representing the country in overseas events, a lot of people would be interested in watching them compete and succeed in what they do.
A big issue with broadcasting sailing live is that sailing is a sport on the water. It isn’t like cricket or tennis where it is being played in a stadium and it is easy to set up hundreds of cameras from all angles.
It is hard because sailing isn’t done in a stadium, it is done out on the water where there is nowhere to set up still cameras and set up a streaming station.
However, with the rate technology has grown and is still growing, there are many different cameras and devices that can be used.
For example, GoPros and other waterproof cameras can be set up on the boats so the viewers can see right up close and also how the sailor or sailors are sailing the boat.
There are many different types of camera gear which can be used like camera stabilisers, and tripods.
One filming device which would be the best for sailing would be drones. Drones have come so far in the past couple of years. The controlling has improved, and the camera quality has also improved, so drones would be perfect for filming sailing.
With enough funding and support, a TV channel like Nine or Seven would be willing to stream sailing, and it will become a very popular sport both to watch on TV. That will also encourage people to try out the sport.
This would all be a big step towards recognising sailing around Australia, and spreading the sport to people all around the world.
Mr C Breath
Guest
The AC was well covered the past few matches mainly via YT and FB live which was also great, as you could watch anywhere you were, many of the world series events like the F50s and Extreme40s, etc are also on streaming. You're too focused on free to air broadcast which for most sports, not just sailing, is not a viable option outside major events (like the S2H) and major league national sports. In fact sailing got great broadcast coverage at the last two olympics especially in London where broadcasters acknowledged that sailing single handely propped up our medal tally. GoPros and Drones are being used widely in sailing, just look at the 18s and the Volvo. Broadcasters arent lost on the technology options, they are lost on the business case for giving airtime to anything other than a major sport/event. The issue is the 'product' isn't popular enough to attract F2A broadcast time and sailing needs to look to other models to get to the viewership and in particular, streaming options which most the 'smart' sailing classes have already proven (18s, Volvo, AV, etc). The S2H gets broadcast coverage for two reasons, its a national event and its a good compete against the cricket on a rival channel at a time of year when there is nothing else on TV. But, even then, its not 'free'. On a boat I won handicap on a few years back we had to pay $10k to the broadcaster to secure a 3 min 'boat highlight' segment prior to the start in order to generate some air time for our sponsor. Many in the sailing community also complain about the 90% coverage given to WOII and the rest of the line honours boats. Two reasons in this, Ch7 sponsors WOII so naturally they wish to generate air time for themselves and, who really wants too see air time given to a 40 footer bobbling around in 5 knots off Eden just because its a handicap contender in a system thats too complicated for Joe Punter to understand. The reality is, broadcast is not an option for sailing and rather than moan about being the victim of an unfair system conspiring against us, we need to be commercially astute and look to alternatives which get our sport out to our audience as demonstrated by those in our sport who have already gone down that path (VO, AC, 18s, etc)
Mr Breath
Guest
This guy has done no analysis and does not understand the sport, funding and broadcast challenges For example: "A big issue with broadcasting sailing live is that sailing is a sport on the water. It isn’t like cricket or tennis where it is being played in a stadium and it is easy to set up hundreds of cameras from all angles." Far from the big issue! Three points of the many challenges with broadcasting sailing: - in general its dead boring to watch on TV - TV stations need set schedules, delays, postponements, no wind, too much wind, etc are all challenges. You only need to go to an AFL game and see the light signal from the broadcaster to the centre umpire to let them know the ads are finished so its on to re-start the game for TV to realise that TV schedules control the sport not the other way around - As a marketing exec, and since google and facebook advertising came along, I would never sponsor a boat in any event as I get more bang for bucks spending money in online advertising than I would ever get from a sponsorship. Sponsorships (and brtoadcast) used to be a way to get cheap newspaper column space and exposure on TV (compared to making a TV ad) but the dynamics of marketing have changed over the past 10-15 years as online advertising has consumed the majority of marketing and advertising budgets and even TV and newspaper ads are now on the decline in part due two the higher cost, the difficulties attributing sales to a newspaper or TV ad and because of declining reader/viewerships Thee are just a couple of the reasons why broadcast sailing is dead Increasingly the solution looks more like what the Volvo, AC and 18s have done which is to move to streaming however even then, our own sailing community city is pretty crap at supporting 'our' sport as I regularly see just 40-80 people watching the weekly 18s races on facebook live, surely the 18s are looking at the cost Vs the viewership and questioning is its still viable There are great examples of course like what Billy did with the GP sailing years ago and the cleaver tie up with the lunchtimes in the cricket, and the AC and Volvo have generally done a great job too, sadly thats an exception Even the AC was dead until the foiling cats came along Simply, sailing and broadcast are no longer a viable match and sailing needs to be smarter and move to alternatives like streaming to targeted audiences
Fabio
Guest
Ok, go swim. But then not to have regrets for what you are missing. Nature, wind, waves, open spaces, adventure, voyages, solidarity, dreams. And team working, tactics, strategics, technics, trimming sails, helming. Emotion. All of this you can start with very few money and a lot of smiling friends. And now, go to swim :)
Skip Lissiman
Guest
Sailing is one of the cheapest sports to get into to learn. Australian Sailing has a terrific website that helps direct anyone interested to their local club. As some have said already - costs are very low compared to some other sports. Coming to the Olympics (in sailing) for 2014 is kite sailing - which is one of the most fun and cheapest forms of sailing out there. Sailing is also a 'cradle to grave' sport, where you can enjoy and compete throughout your whole lifetime - what other sports can offer that??
Tony
Roar Rookie
Yes I am aware of the 18ft skiff livestreams, however, in this article I am referring more to international events like the world sailing series and Americas Cup
Megan
Guest
Membership can be costly, but there are many places where you can be a member for $100 - $150 per year, which is way less than I paid for a year when I used to play soccer You can also join as a crew for free without being a member anywhere. You are supposed to be a member if you sail a lot, but to get started just head down to your local club or sign up at www.mysail.team to find a crewing spot - both are free. That's how I started sailing and now I pay $300 per year for my membership - still less than soccer!
Paul
Guest
You may be aware that most people under 30 hardly watche terrestrial TV - they stream their media online to their smartphone.
Paul White
Guest
Did you know that they mainly sail dinghies at the Olympics? You don’t have to join a “Yacht” club to go sailing. My club races on Sydney Harbour all year, membership is $280/year for adults or $170 for kids. You can but a raceable dinghy or windsurfer for under $2000.
Paul
Guest
It seems as though the article is written h someone who has never seen the current livestream of the 18ft skiff sailing available to anyone with a smartphone or pc - fast boat video coverage. live informed commentary, drone shots and on-water interviews - see https://www.18footers.com.au/18-footers-sailing/18-footers-tv/ If you want to know how to package sailing for a live audience, it’s a good place to start.
Callum
Guest
Have you ever actually tried to walk into a general Sailing club and learn to sail? I think you’ll find those figures you are quoting are nowhere near the truth. Most clubs these days have very cheap incentives for people and their families to join. Take a look, you may be surprised.
Michael
Guest
My kids and nephews/niece do gymanstics, football, basketball. All are about on par for costs to go sailing. Our current silver medallist in the multihull class not so long ago was sailing Hobie 16's of which you can buy starting at $1500. Hardly the sport only available to the rich.
Ant
Guest
Membership at my local club is a fairly affordable $100. You can pick up a boat to get in the water and start learning <$1000. I guess he first two comments prove the article. Time for @Australian Sailing to fix this!
Tony
Guest
You can’t cut something that doesn’t exist
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Actually sailing is quite an accesible sport compared to motor racing. The 18 footers were televised and the footage was spectacular because it was based around short races in Sydney Harbour and having a crew of three . The Americas cup on the other hand is like watching paint dry along with the Sydney Hobart. The Olympics is better but its nowhere as good as the 18 footers were in the days of Ian Murray and Channel 7 team. The problem is old and the rich prefer sailing on bigger boats with others to do the work so they make the Sydney Hobart the big race compared to the better quality spectacle that we had in the past. Australian sport is tightly controlled, so we get to watch V8's because they want to sell them, not because they are the best racing cars to watch. I can remember when you had sailing, surf life saving and other sports on TV. Now Australian TV is obsessed with trying to brain wash people into following a sport. AFL endless ads promoting it 24 hours around the clock and little coverage of other sports on Seven. You used to get a quick round up of heaps of sports. Now its long suck up pieces on a few favoured sports and same with the newspapers. More pages on sport than ever, but its again suck up pieces to NRL, AFL and Cricket big bash, except when NRL players do their usual benders .
Drew
Guest
You’ve inspired me! I’ll pop down to my local yacht club and join immediately. Oh wait...I don’t have a spare $438 +$250 joining fee to just get in the door. I’d say we go the other way and cut sailing funding because piling money into rich people sports to get Olympic medals is a folly. Chasing Olympic medals in general is stupid. Sailing isn’t popular because the barriers to entry are exceptionally high. Need water access. Need a boat. Need buckets of money. Need a car to tow boat or a yacht club to store it. I can go kick a ball for free. Or run. Or swim in a local pool for $4.50.
Max power
Guest
Great we are good at a sport that no one watches. Rich people in a few rich countries that can afford a boat Next