Olympic sailing reborn

In three week's time Sail Melbourne will see the advent of ISAF's new Sailing World Cup

Olympic sailing is to go through a major transformation in three weeks time with the advent of the first regatta in the ISAF's new Sailing World Cup: Sail Melbourne. The idea that has been mooted for several years now, is finally set to go live with the aim of elevating media interest in Olympic sailing during non-Olympic years (in much the same way as the 32rd America’s Cup did with their ‘Acts’).

ISAF’s Event Manager Alastair Fox explains: “Hopefully by introducing the Sailing World Cup, the media will find it easier to pick up stories on the top sailors and there should be more information getting out there and it should have a good knock on effect to sailors and their sponsors and generally improve recognition of sailing.”

For its inaugural year the Sailing Cup World will comprise:

Sailing Melbourne (16-21 December 2008)
Rolex Miami OCR (25-31 January 2009)
Trefo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, Palma (4-10 April)
Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres (18-24 April)
Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik (27-31 May)
Kieler Woche (19-24 June)
Skandia Sail For Gold Regatta, Weymouth (14-19 September)

The World Cup will be for all the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic classes and as the intention is for it to focus on the elite within Olympic sailing, it has been decided that it only the top 20 from each class within each regatta who score points. Instead of the usual minimum points scoring system, it will be ‘maximum points’ (ie 20 points for 1st, 19 for 2nd, etc with the leaderboard totted up after each event. Significantly at the end of the year there will be a winner in each class. In addition to this there will be ‘national standings’.

For those familiar with the World Match Racing Tour, the concept of the Sailing World Cup is easy to understand - and this is no coincidence as advising the ISAF on the blueprint for the SailingWorld Cup is Force 10 Marketing’s Scott Macleod and Craig Mitchell, creators of the Tour.

As with the Tour, the Sailing World Cup piggybacks on existing events, hopefully to the mutual benefit of all concerned and it will be interesting to see if it develops along similar lines.

Take the venues for example. At present the Sailing World Cup is based on existing top, mostly Grade 1 Olympic classes regattas and it seems certain that the organisers of other similar regattas will be keen to become part of the circuit too as it develops. Somewhere down the road money will start to get involved, with events finding themselves having to bid to remain in the Sailing World Cup.

“Certainly with the management group there is a clear expectation that there are standards each event has to meet and if they don’t there is no reason why they would stay in,” states Fox. “As it develops I’m sure there will be other events that are bidding to be part of the Sailing World Cup.”

He points out for example that the 2009 Sailing World Cup includes events in Australia and the US with the rest in Europe. Surely a Sailing World Cup should include events on every continent? “That is certainly a goal for the future and there is a lot of interest in Asia and South America to be part of it. So in terms of fees being paid to ISAF I’m not sure how that will work, but certainly there will be other events clamouring to be part of the World Cup and that will create competition between the existing events on the circuit. It is going to develop and there will be people wanting to be part of it and in five, 10 years time you might be able to start charging people to be part of it.”

However the money won’t only go into ISAF coffers. As is the case with the Tour, much of the sponsorship is ploughed back into the promotion of the circuit and its events.

Obviously there will be some wait for this to come to pass, and in the meantime the Sailing World Cup is trying to hook a major overall sponsor (just as the World Match Racing Tour is…) The Management Group behind the Sailing World Cup - this is chaired by the Chairman of ISAF’s Events Committee, Bjorn Unger, and comprises representatives from each of the seven regattas, plus Force 10, a member of the Athlete’s Commission and the Olympic Classes Sub-Committee - already have a wish list drawn up for what they would like when a sponsor comes on board. Pretty much top of this list is TV production.

“At the moment we are operating without a title sponsor, so for the moment TV production is extremely limited and for 2009 we are relying on what each of the seven events is doing and we’ll try and create what we can with that," says Fox. "But we have a plan in place for when a title sponsor does come along as to where money will be spent and TV is obviously a fairly hefty chunk of that. Then we could have an independent team which goes to each of the seven events and produces consistent programs, but without a title sponsor that is not going to happen.”

Another indication of what might happen to the Sailing World Cup if it follows the same route as the Tour is prize money. The Tour is very heavily based on prize money being awarded at the end of each regatta and for the more successful competitors this goes some way towards covering their annual overheads. If big prize money starts becoming available for Sailing World Cup events it is possible the circuit could eventually end up dwarfing the Olympic regatta itself.

The introduction of the Sailing World Cup is certain to have an effect on the ISAF rankings. Firstly the grading of the events in the Sailing World Cup may be elevated to the same status as World Championships. However more profound is the suggestion that with the advent of the Sailing World Cup, what need is there for the rankings? And the answer is: that while the Sailing World Cup will cater for the elite, the rankings are crucial for non-top 20 sailors in each class. So while they seem likely to remain, one suspects that the importance of the rankings, as they are now, will be played down in comparison to the Sailing World Cup leaderboard.

A limitation of the rankings - and this does not look set to be solved by the Sailing World Cup - is that we all know Ben Ainslie is the top Finn sailor in world, but because he only pitches up at regattas sporadically he doesn’t lead the ranking. There seems to be no easy way round this. The Sailing World Cup carries no discards so, like the World Match Racing Tour , it favours those who take part the most (as well as those who score best).

For Sailing World Cup events there is a new slight restriction on entries. For each event, a maximum of eight per nation are allowed into each class. Additions are put on to a waiting list.

“What it is trying to say is that if you are at Kiel, you don’t just want to have German sailors turning up to the event. If, let’s say, there were 20 Finn sailors who all wanted to go, after eight they’d be put on to a reserve list and then if they still had places left on their class quota then they would be allowed to join. It was an attempt to make sure that events were open to as many nations as possible without making an event suddenly go up to 400 entries in one class.”



Aside from the TV coverage, Fox says there is a general aim to provide consistency between Sailing World Cup events. They would also like to extend their web presence particularly with features such as live tracking and mark roundings. “With ISAF setting the standard through Sailing World Cup events and the ISAF Worlds it puts us in a good position to go back to the IOC and say ‘this is what we do as a norm and this is what we want in future Olympics'.”

Consistency between events on the Saling World Cup also extends to race management. “What we are very keen to do with the Sailing World Cup is to run off a common set of guidelines and policies and the ISAF race management policy as used in the Olympics is a good starting point,” says Fox. “There are obvious differences because of fleet sizes, but the idea is to have the medal race as happened in the Olympics and Grade One events last year. So if a sailor turns up in Melbourne or Medemblik they are doing the same thing.”

Ideally Fox says they would like a common Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions throughout the Sailing World Cup, with only a small number of minor amendments according to the venue. He would also like to see more consistency from event to event with the umpire and jury teams.

As to the format - at present at least it will remain the same with fleet racing culminating in the top 10 boats competing in medal race (the women’s match racers will obviously have their equivalent, a one-on-one final). “There will be a format discussion within ISAF over the next few months and suggestions will go forward to the Mid-Year Meeting,” says Fox. “We are still trying to finalise a format for the match racing. Melbourne has dropped match racing from their event, but it will be held in Miami and the European events.”

Obviously with Tour organisers, Force 10’s Scott Macleod and Craig Mitchell, on board then they are getting advice from the best about how to run the Women’s Match Racing and according to Fox it seems most likely that the format of the match racing will change according to the number of participants. More participants could require a second round robin or a longer knock-out series for example. At present the ISAF Match Racing Committee is working on a definitive format. Rolex Miami OCR will be the first occasion Women’s Match Racing will be held at an Olympic classes regatta and Fox says he and his colleagues will be monitoring the take up closely.

So will Sailing World Cup organisers be encouraged to use Elliott 6s? “Part of the reason Melbourne decided early on to take themselves out of the match racing debate was because they didn’t know what the decision would be in November,” says Fox. “Realistically the Elliott 6 could be at the later European events, but what we are encouraging the Sailing World Cup organisers to do for 2009 is to use local fleets of whatever they have. Miami are using SB3s. Weymouth is in a different position because there might be Elliott 6s around then but the question is who would buy them? I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Sail For Gold go and buy eight Elliotts right now. But that will develop over the year and in 2010 and 2011 I’m sure they will be using Elliott 6s whether it is bring your own or supplied.”

Obviously for the ISAF Worlds in 2011 and the subsequent Games’ regatta in Weymouth the gear will be supplied.

In addition to the Sailing World Cup, Fox is also in charge of managing the ISAF Worlds, which will be staged next in Perth 2011. The proposal was made to change the ISAF Worlds from being held once every four years (in the year before the Olympics), it being to biennial, but with the advent of the Sailing World Cup, this has been abandoned.

So why are the ISAF Worlds needed at all when there is the new Sailing World Cup? The answer to this seems a little flimsy however Fox points out that a major feature of the ISAF Worlds is qualifying countries for the Games the following year. “Certainly for the next ISAF Worlds, that will be the major Olympic qualification regatta for 2012. 75% of nation places will be given there, so there is a very clear difference between the role of the Sailing World Cup and the ISAF Worlds.” Not convinced. Nor are we of the need for World Championships for the individual classes if the Sailing World Cup is genuinely to be contended by the elite. It is better to be a world champion or a Sailing World Cup class champion? This is more likely to confuse rather than aid the media.

Fox stresses that for 2009, ISAF are considering the Sailing World Cup as a test year and will be closely monitoring all aspects of it, looking for improvements that can be made in subsequent years. However many of the possible changes in the future are simply a matter of opinion. “Some areas of sailing are saying it should be a very restricted entry and really just attract the top sailors in each class and there are others who are saying that it should be open to everyone and they should all have the opportunity to score World Cup points.”

We say - bring it on!