College Sailing

Did you know that there is a thriving college sport in the US that gets absolutely no media attention? As college football pulls in 12 million dollars per team per BCS bowl, sailing is stuck in the back.
"How come sailing is not an NCAA sport?

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing body of intercollegiate sailing, not the NCAA. Early in the 20th century a group of savvy business types got together and founded an organization purely devoted to competitive sailing at the collegiate level (the Inter-Collegiate Yacht Racing Association). In this manner, sailors ensured that they could govern their own sport rather than some ex-basketball coach who couldn't care less about a bunch of sailors. Most importantly to college sailors, the ICSA hosts the North American championships each year to determine which college is, in fact, #1."

--Straight from collegesailing.org

Now, I'm not saying that the folks over at ICSA have done a bad job of managing the sport. In fact, I believe they have done a terrific job given what they have. Each year the fleets become more competitive and more active.

Unfortunately, 80% of the teams are club teams, receiving little funding from the school and likely with no coaching. Some have volunteer coaches from the yacht club, some have no yacht club at all. Sailing is a very expensive sport for the school to support and it takes in no profits. There are no paying spectators but new boats and sails cost a lot. Not to mention travel. Then you mention that you really only need four people on the team to compete (unlike other large team sports) and the funding drops even more. It's a difficult area to excel.

College sailors race mainly in 420s, Lasers, and FJ's. These are the perfect boats. While many criticize these boats for being underpowered and uninteresting for the sailors, I believe they are simple, cost efficient boats that force sailors to sail strategically. While it would be more fun to sail faster and more dangerous with spins and traps, the costs for programs would skyrocket and new sailor training would take any longer. The budgets of these teams are already stretched and they can't afford to stretch any more.

Many of the top sailors in the country and world have come out of the ICSA program. Many all-americans become future Olympians and even AC drivers. Others give up sailing for a while and then go back to it when they can afford it. But the point is, it is the breeding ground for future sailors, both professional and club level.

Would making the sport apart of the NCAA help the sport? Possibly. I don't think the ICSA would give up the program and I don't think the NCAA wants it but it would certainly help. Monetary support would increase but it might also widen the gap between schools. Many athletic programs would not pick up the sport as apart of their varsity programs and the lingering problems would remain.

A new sailing event could use this talent. It could even restrict its competitors to this age group. Instead of 40 year old million or billionaires, fans could watch young kids battle just like in all the other sports. The drama would be higher, the boats could be faster, and the 18-30 market could be reached much easier. Plus, the racing could go on in the summer and not interfere with classes!

If you attended college or live near one, consider donating to your team. They would most certainly appreciate it or any kind of advice you could give them. Most likely, they would love a monthly coaching session. Too many college sailors graduate and then forget about their college hobby. As the college scene expands, everything above it will expand also.

Southern Ocean is Crowded

I was so excited for this winter to come. Not because I got to break out my new spraytop, but because my favorite race is going on. The Vendee Globe. Ever since I read about the solo circumnavigation I've loved this race. All the way back to when it was called the Golden Globe. But even with 30 skippers on the starting line, only one American has entered. One. This is the pinnacle of Ocean Sailing! The New York Times has an interesting article about the races popularity in France. Of course with only one racer it's hard to spread the races popularity in the states but come on. I was simply shocked to learn that only one American is participating.

A little further south, the Volvo Ocean Race is still going strong. I haven't looked a whole lot at their website and what they have going, but I have listening to their podcast for the past year or so. That should tell you how good they are with connecting to the public. Very nice. They even had some money left over to race in the Extreme 40 series! Also good stuff.

Ocean racing just goes along with what kind of brand I think will sell. Extreme. High Definition. Drama. It's all there. And as you can see, it's flourishing in the foreign markets. So how do we get the race to flourish here? How about adding more American skippers for one thing. What if someone started a race just like the Vendee Globe but that set off from the US? Only United States sailors could enter. Put the start live on TV out of New York or San Francisco and have a weekly recap show with maybe some live interviews. Races like the Vendee globe and VOR already have the equipment to broadcast this information, just not the medium in the US to do it. What company or what person is going to force ESPN or a network to broadcast this stuff? No one. Why? Because they will laugh you out of their office.

No one would watch the Vendee Globe. No one wants to watch the French sail around the world just like they don't want to watch the Russians have another spacewalk. But show little Jimmy from Houston out there in space and then you've got something. Returning national pride and interest to sailing is something that would jumpstart the AC's US interests and other programs. The problem is, these organizations don't care that they are losing out on the US because they can do so well in Europe. But I think they are missing a HUGE market.

The cable sports program was born here. Reality TV was born here. Fantasy football was born here. If there is ever a sports hungry market, it's the US.

Someone...one day will make it happen.