There was a time – and it wasn’t all that long ago – when the big-ticket events in our sport were run primarily for sailors. The America’s Cup, the Olympics, even offshore classics like the Whitbread, were essentially competitions staged by sailors, for sailors, and watched only by those already immersed in the sport.
But the landscape has shifted. Today, sailing’s four biggest stages – the America’s Cup, Olympic sailing, SailGP, and the Vendée Globe – are as much entertainment products as they are sporting contests. They are packaged, broadcast, clipped, and streamed in ways that look far more like mainstream sport than niche yacht racing.
The question is: is this a good thing? And perhaps more importantly, does it even matter to the millions of sailors who spend their weekends battling it out in dinghies, sportsboats, or keelboats?
Let’s start with SailGP – because if ever there was a sailing series born for television, this is it. The whole concept was designed with the sports entertainment model front and centre: short, sharp fleet races in identical foiling catamarans; city-centre venues where spectators can line the waterfront; a slick broadcast package with data overlays and expert commentary.
