As much as our indomitable editor of Rule69 has, in the past, given SailGP a bit of a short shrift, I really like the event. He seems to have softened his tone recently so I thought that I would weigh in with my thoughts, whatever they are worth. (“softened my tone”? I don’t know about that…)
Many years ago when I first raced around the world, one of our crew, a Californian by the name of Dick Seay pioneered the idea of inshore racing up close and sometimes in the face of the spectators. He would not shut up about it. Of course those boats would have been different back then. He also imagined large floating grandstands surrounding the race course. The idea never took off despite Dick’s relentless promotion, but in the end it came to, as many things sailing related do, a lack of money.
Sailing is one of those sports that’s hard to make interesting for non-sailors. Most of the action takes place inside the heads of the crewmembers which, unless you have a good set of keys to help unlock things it just leaves a bunch of boats going back and forth and up and down and spectators immediately lose interest.
In a nutshell it’s boring for those that don’t understand the jargon but thrilling for those of us that do. When the commentator says things like “the breeze has shifted right and those on starboard tack are smiling,” we know what that means. For the general public it sounds like someone reading Julia Child’s chicken soup recipe, but it’s not. It’s the guts of the game.
Sailing is more of an intellectual sport rather than all muscle and brawn and having a basic understanding of tactics and race rules will make watching the boats racing against each other much more interesting. If you have no clue what a wind shift to the right will do for the sailors it becomes just another bunch of colorful boats racing up and down a course until someone crosses the finish line first.
Enter the billionaire Larry Ellison (who is quite dislikeable) and Kiwi Russel Coutts, who is an extremely talented sailor and a pretty boy and actually quite dislikeable. They do, however, have the one key ingredient; money, and a lot of it and they revived the idea of inshore racing. Their timing was good. Flying boats were just becoming a thing, onboard commentary piped in live was another big plus and most important of all, high speed crashes happened regularly enough to keep everyone watching. I personally do not like the crashes but NASCAR wouldn’t be NASCAR without a good crash every now and then. I don’t like NASCAR either (I know that the Ed does…:). (I really liked NASCAR before Kyle Busch died, but I truly love F1).
SailGP has mostly been held in unique locations with historic and exotic backdrops where intense battles are fought just yards from the crowds lining the shore. In other words, perfect locations for a telegenically minded audience. The speeds are full-on and the racing is razor thin as the boats hurtle around the course. This, combined with the subtle wind changes which luckily I understand, makes SailGP and inshore racing very compelling, and it’s about to get a real boost.
Netflix is stepping in and is bringing two of my favorite male actors with them. They are going to make a movie about SailGP starring Canadian Ryan Reynolds and Aussie Hugh Jackman. Who doesn’t like these two box-office powerhouses? Deadpool and Wolverine.
It’s a Disney project that, for now, does not have a name and a similar attempt by the Americas Cup to do a Hollywood type sailing movie was quickly dropped so I think that Disney and Netflix know that they are navigating tricky ground. Maybe there are hints of the movie Wind in the breeze that has people a bit nervous. I personally liked that movie despite its corniness. Who doesn’t like watching Jennifer Grey before she had a nose job.
Jackman and Reynolds are co-owners of a F50 catamaran BONDS Flying Roos and so far only Ryan has had the pants scared off him by going for a sail and tapping out at 40 knots. He also got to feel the G-force as the boat tacked or gybed and said afterwards that it was one of the scariest things he had ever done.
I don’t think audiences are going to care if the wind is trending right or if there is a possible left hand shift coming in the next puff. What they will want more of is these two film stars getting soaked and a story line that has Disney written. For us sailors who toil in relative obscurity, this movie should be a big boost to our sport and I can’t wait to see the final result. – Brian Hancock.
