From the Feedback - 23/12/00

We'll be publishing the choicest moments from the stuff you send us - but each contribution may or may not be subjected to a rigorous process of editing for language, taste and imparted wisdom. And of course, as they so famously say at the start of anything like this, the opinions expressed in From the Feedback do not necessarily reflect those of the management, staff or investors of madforsport.com. Instead, and much more importantly, they reflect your views.

From Suzie,
Team Philips - good or bad for British sailing? Team Philips has helped bring sailing an unprecedented amount of publicity - I happened to flick through a Car Magazine yesterday and found a five page article on it. This must be a positive thing, but by the same token, sailing has and continues to struggle to get press coverage for the right reasons i.e. success.

The results of the British Olympic Sailing Team were awesome. Not only the gold, but the silver medals and the other strong showings as well. If the success that Ian Walker and Mark Covell managed - after the loss of their sailing partners - had been in rowing, they would have had pages of press coverage! We were by far the most successful nation in sailing at the Olympics, and the most successful sport in the British team at the Olympics. If rowing or athletics had the same success they'd have got 45 minutes at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year rather than the five minutes we got. The same goes for Adrian Stead and Barlo Plastics in the Tour Voile - not even a mention. If a Brit had won the Tour de France on a bicycle we'd never hear the last of it.

Team Philips was always likely to end in glorious failure - you can't build such a radical design for such a brutal race with such small preparation time. While I applaud his courage and hope that if they do salvage the craft he breaks some records, my greatest concerns are that Team Philips sends the message that British sailing is about heroic failure, it isn't - we are one of the best sailing nations in the world. And secondly, that sponsorship for the Olympics, Admiral's Cup, America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race etc. - which has always been a problem - may be further hampered by this failure. While column inches are helpful, it is success that is the ultimate aim of sponsorship. We must ensure that sailing = success; and not failure.

From Richard Lee,
Team Philips - good or bad for British sailing? What Goss achieved was to focus the media on sailing which - let's face it - is an also-ran sport for the mainstream British public. All publicity is good and the interest generated by the Team Philips project will benefit the world of sailing for years to come - perhaps this is Team Philips legacy?

From Andy Bird,
Team Philips - good or bad for British sailing? Pete Goss has achieved a tremendous amount and has rightly elevated himself to the top. With that success came greater media focus and a greater risk of failure now that he had something to lose. In Aqua Quorum he had a relatively simple boat, well made with good attention to detail. Team Philips was a radical project, a departure from the type of thing that got Pete to a position where he could consider an entry in The Race. Many raised doubts, including Grant Dalton and Seahorse Magazine. Unfortunately, those doubts proved well founded and that there was no loss of life is something to be very grateful for. Pete Goss dared to be radical and has stumbled. He should not be derided for that.

From Juetay,
Team Philips - good or bad for British sailing? Whether Goss would have won The Race or not, does not matter - what his vision does is give hope to aspiring sailors the world over. Just look at the public interest in Totnes and in the press over the build period - wrong impressions maybe, but capturing interest. This is of a magnitude greater than the interest shown in the Olympics and Kingfisher. He made mistakes and failed, but at least he made an attempt. Remember the boat failed in extreme conditions and lessons learned can help the evolution of the design. Goss ran out of time and that's related to resources.

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