The Medal race at the last olympics in the 49er class was the sort of racing viewers want to see - changes to the points scoring system and the number of boats in a race in my view doesnt actually matter; racing to be good on TV and I dont think it has event to be live, needs action and lots of it - some of the most striking TV was of the 1997 America Cup in Perth in 12m all 28 tons ploughing thru waves etc looked great. To get the best 'visual racing' the races need to be started when there is wind and waves, have about 30 boats and do away with penalties for infringements like mark rounding and port and starboard - you want to see people crashing in on port at the weather mark, getting struck in - lots of action for the TV viewer make it exciting ! - obviously use a supplied boat ....... Charles Apthorp

Sailing will never reach high public figures before the race can start on time without general recalls and the winner of the last race will also be the winner of the regatta. The sport of sailing is too conservative, and one should look at the recent changes made to cross country skiing and biathlon to learn how brave thinking dramatically enhances the public image of the sport. The ISAF report addresses the issues of format in 3.27 and 5.52 of the report, now available on ISAFs website, and suggests new formats including head to head competition between boats and various qualification systems should be considered. One such format may be the following: The entire fleet sails a qualifying regatta consisting of number of races, say 10 or 12, under the same scoring system as used today. The top six teams then have three races, the last boat in each being eliminated. The three remaining boats then race in a three boat final, where the winner of the regatta becomes the first to win two races. The silver and bronze medal winners will be determined by their finishing order of the last race. In two of the oldest trophies of international sailing, the America´s Cup and the Scandinavian Gold Cup, the emphasis is on qualification and winning races. I honestly cannot see why this should not apply to olympic sailing as well. In 1999 such format was introduced during an international regatta for 49ers in Norway. Several of the worlds best teams participated, and it became sufficiently popular among the sailors to be followed up during a Scandinavian circuit for the class in 2002. The racing was extremely tense, close and audience friendly. The format combines the best elements of fleet- and matchracing and lends itself well to TV production which, supported by tracking and good graphics would be exactly what sailing needs. Regards Mikkel Thommessen,

Sorry to see Moose go, but if that's what the boss wants, that's what he gets! Let's hope this isn't a thinly veiled purging of 'Foreigners' from the team because in that case Pablo (POL), Nick Bice (AUS), Julian Cressant would have to go as well to name a few as would newly appointed Juan Villa (ESP) on the TP and Peter Isler (USA), we'll see!

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8694562.stm The UCI have just annouced that there will be only 1 place per country in the sprint competitions for the cycling - surely this is going against "the IOC specifies that the best athletes should be represented and clearly at present this is more true at World Championships where there is no one boat/nation limitation."

I sa wa similiar pattern while working in mountain biking, where they had world championships, world cups etc (similiar to skiing). The public could not understand if you won a world cup you wer enot worl champion. My recommendation woudl be to have world championships ever odd year, Continental champs ever even, Olympics ever 4 and then commonwealth games etc 2 following the olympics. At Olympics all kit shoudl be supplied (legacy to host or donation to poorer countries) and decorated in national colours. Qualification shoudl be through regional allocation and world championship placing. World cup should be renamed in to world series or world sailing league.

Amazing how I was described as an "odd-ball", "fruitcase" and "idiot" when I first warned that sailing will be out of the Games within a generation. Now ISAF has woken up and methinks it's all a bit too late....

Good riddance. The team can move on now. Ian - no. Sid - no. Jim Salts - no. Grant Simmer - possible.

If not on the windward foil, where would you have him? presumably it is less about having the chappy on the windward foil, but NOT on the leeward one, which needs more lift or less downward force (weight plus downward component of sail pressure). The only other position for him would be in the water....

What is the point of having that fellow on the windward foil when by immersing more of it, more lift will be generated. It's the leeward foil that needs to be adjusted.The windward foil is working fine as the weather hull is out of the water. Foil-borne cats are notoriously difficult to design!

The TV coverage definitely needs to be improved. It seems with the BBC that because sailing is a niche sport they'll give it coverage but the bare minimum so when you do get to see races there is not time for a commentator to explain the current standings and you only get highlights of the race so it's hard to follow what's going on even as a sailor. An extra two minutes before the race for someone to explain the course and how it works would go a long way to holding the interest of non-sailors who in this day and age if they don't understand hit the red button and choose another sport!

If the report is big enough perhaps it will hurt when those who voted in self interest rather than sport interest are hit with it. Maybe then the risk to the sport will be recognised by those more concerned with the risk to themselves.

I think the best thing to do is to opt for women's match racing in favour of young, exciting skiff sailing. The number of countries that really excel in womens match racing is HUGE and the yachts are really cheap - really anyone can afford them.

It would be a pity to lose sailing from the Olympics. Unlike some sports, where the Olympics is a bit of a sideline compared to other competitions - soccer, tennis and golf come to mind - it is the pinnacle of a major branch of our sport.

On expanding presence in regional games - Laser & RSX I can understand, but why would the 470 be a good idea?? A boat which most of the big sailing nations already have a significant technical advantage... On TV - changes to the format are one part, but being able to tell boats apart at distance (the little country flags aren't really adequate) is a big failing point at the moment. Lots of identical white boats don't make it easy to follow and while Virtual Spectator is an excellent tool you miss a lot of the action by spending extended periods looking at it. The other part is the standard of the commentary. The last Olympics was (Ben Ainslie's guest spot excepted) pretty poor (from a UK perspective). There seems to be a happy medium that sailing seems unable to find here - either you get experienced sailors who aren't too good on the microphone, or you get professional(?) commentators who don't have the in depth knowledge of the racing. Just been re-watching the mostly excellent coverage of the Cascais Medcup - while Martin Tasker has done sterling work as a presenter for various big events there are a lot of long pauses in his commentary. It was interesting when they cut to Dobbs Davis, watching the GP42s, that his delivery was much more urgent and exciting. Back on the TP52 course the commentators just talk over the moment when Origin's bow goes down in a huge gust that takes them out to the big lead in the race they won. If commentators can't even spot the significant parts of the race and present them in a dramatic style then how on earth can we ever exepect non sailors to switch on to the sport....

I am another surprised supporter to learn that Moose has been removed from his post and agree with Tim Sewell and others that we should collectively thank him for what he has achieved for the Team thus far, hanging in there through thick and thin, and support him in his next venture. However, we also need to fully support our Team going forward under whichever guiding hand remains steady as she blows. Rod's got steady hands... and some time on them now!

Sir Keith Mills... more like Sir Alan Sugar... 'YOU'RE FIRED!' Big shame. Sanderson is a LEGEND and has clearly shown huge commitment to the team. How he's kicked out without a formal press release is very odd. PS The Cascais TP52 event made great veiwing- Thank you.

Rod Carr to start with, hopefully sabilize and make sure some British faces get a fair chance to make the team!

As the team grows, seems to me that Moose needs replacing with a number of people: 1. Head coach 2. Head of design coordination 3. Head honcho The head coach should be someone well known to the afterguard already. The other two roles should feature a whole lot of cup experience between them.