Participation drop-off a worldwide concern

In a display of unity rarely seen in the fragmented sport of sailing, there was little dissent amongst delegates at this week’s World Yacht Racing Forum in Barcelona that a global drop-off in participation is the single biggest challenge.

It’s a problem facing traditional sailing venues around Ireland and all over the western world that failed to recruit or retain newcomers to the sport in stronger economic times.

Speaker after speaker spoke of the need not only to recruit newcomers to the sport but also to spread activity beyond the traditional strongholds in Europe and North America.

News this week that the IOC may be about to remove the limit on the number of sports eligible for the Olympics could bring mixed blessings for sailing according to ISAF vice president Chris Atkins.

Existing sports such as sailing could face new limits in the number of medal disciplines under the new structure meaning a possible reduction from the current 10 events that form the Olympic regatta.

Broadening the sport into emerging nations is, therefore, vital for future high-performance that Atkins linked to a cycle between Volvo Ocean Race and America's Cup.

For the past decade, many of the high-value professional events do exactly that as they tour major city destinations, especially in Asia and China and the Middle East. But rather than a circus arriving for a week, creating a spectacle and then disappearing, local hosts are now seeking longer-term legacies and a permanent presence such as the World Match Racing Tour that has to date brought over 11,000 children sailing as part of its programme.

Another developing programme features Guo Chuan, the former media crew-member from Ireland's Green Dragon project in the 2007-'08 round the world race.

After making history in his home country as the first modern-era Chinese sailor to circumnavigate the planet, he then launched his own project in Galway just two years ago to sail single-handed, non-stop around the world.

A year later, he completed this circumnavigation earning himself hero status in China and now champions the development of the sport along the country’s 14,500km coastline.

“It can be an attractive sport for China and we’re getting the basics in place from marinas to events. Now our sailors are starting to go fast and five years time will see a huge difference,” he said.

Drew fire

However,

Olympic Games

as a motivator for growth also drew fire this week from Keith Mills, the deputy chairman of the London 2012 Games.

“We need ISAF to be much stronger and spend more time on other parts of the sport and less on Olympics. We desperately need this,” he said, referring to the many other branches of sailing such as oceanic, offshore, handicap classes and non-Olympic dinghy disciplines. “Establishing another governing body . . . would be a disaster which is why we need ISAF to engage.”

Mills also took aim at the America’s Cup organisation for the “unacceptable” delay in waiting over a year from the end of the last spectacular event to the announcement of the next venue and date which lost much of the momentum of public interest that the spectacle in San Francisco garnered.

Large Irish events such as the regattas in Dun Laoghaire and Cork could match the strategy of club level regattas such as Germany’s Kieler Woche and Charleston Sailing Week in the United States (which had a 120 per cent increase in entries over the last three years) for creating a spectacle as a way of attracting recruits to the sport.