Sailing is too complicated. We need to simplify it. Right?

One of the best sailors in the world is saying we should rewrite the rulebook and replace archaic nautical terms with language that is easier to understand.

Russell Coutts said the following in an interview about changing the rules for the America’s Cup recently.

It’s too complicated. We have a rulebook that is like this (holding up his fingers to show a thickness of about an inch). Frankly, I think people have got better things to do than sit at home at night and read the rulebook. Once upon a time, I used to read the rulebook quite a lot – now it bores me to tears to sit down and read a book of sailing instructions before a regatta. We’ve tried to simplify it. We’ve got all these archaic terms, all the nautical terms and all the yacht club BS and we need to get away from that if we are going to encourage more people to participate in the sport.

It makes sense on the surface, but is there a real need to change the rules, or does sailing just need to get better at communication?

Yes sailing has rules and jargon, but all sports have rules and jargon. Formula One racing has two rulebooks – one of sporting regulations which is 37 pages and one of technical regulations which is 63 pages.

Rugby has only 22 rules, but rule 20, which relates to a scrum has 12 parts and some of those parts have 9 sub-parts. Russell Coutts, a New Zealander who by his nationality should understand Rugby, should try explaining the difference between a ruck, a maul and a scrum to people who don’t follow the game.

Here’s an example from the official rules

A maul begins when a player carrying the ball is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier’s team mates bind on the ball carrier. A maul therefore consists, when it begins, of at least three players, all on their feet; the ball carrier and one player from each team. All the players involved must be caught in or bound to the maul and must be on their feet and moving towards a goal line. Open play has ended.

But Rugby is an old fashioned game, what about the sports that excite the facebook generation? Well skateboarding includes terms like Nollie, Fakie and Indy and snowboarding features phrases like caballarial, crossbone method air and Elgeurial.

An Elgeurial(BFM) is an invert where the halfpipe wall is approached fakie, the rear hand is planted, a 360 degree backside rotation is made, and the rider lands going forward.

So that’s simple isn’t it.

You can’t really imagine Tiger Woods coming out and saying ‘let’s get rid of all this golf club BS, we need new terms for caddie, tee and eagle. Bunker is too hard to explain, so let’s dumb it down to sand-trap.’

Coutts’ argument is echoed by broadcasters trying to make Olympic sailing more accessible for a TV audience. Some think that having an event where the first person across the line is not always the winner is too hard to explain, yet hugely popular events like the Tour de France don’t seem to have a problem with it.

There are many events in the Olympics where this happens – shooting, decathlon, diving, gymnastics and most field events in the stadium.

While it’s great that sailing is finally thinking about the people watching and not just the people competing, it would be a great shame to dumb the sport down while other relatively complicated activities help their audience understand. Poker has managed to educate millions of people about blinds, flops and rivers

The idea that sailing needs to be simplified is a lazy alternative to making the effort to teach the rules to a new audience.

It could be argued, that having a distinct terminology, that celebrates proud nautical heritage of most countries’ history is a great thing for the sport and that having invested the time to understand the rules, a fan is more likely to be a long-term supporter. If a spectator doesn’t have to learn the rules, then they can switch their attention away from the sport more easily when the event is over.

One of the reasons that Russell Coutts is such a great sailor is that he spent the time to read the rulebook. The best athletes of all sports are the ones that know the rules better than the others. The best F1 teams are the ones that interpret the technical regulations most cleverly, the best rugby teams are the ones that understand the differences between the way northern and southern hemisphere referees interpret the rules.

Sailing should be proud of it’s terms. Rather than being ‘yacht club BS’ they permeate our everyday lives without us realising it. The phrases of business and teamwork borrow heavily from nautical tradition – phrases like; all hands on deck, as the crow flies, and perhaps the most used sailing phrase in recent times, bail out.

Sailing should remind audiences, both new and old that when they use phrases like; above board, by and large, carry on, high and dry or overhaul, they are nautical phrases. Why would we give up these terms and replace them with what some marketing or broadcasting person thinks would work better?

What do you think? Is sailing too complicated? Should it be dumbed down?

Would it surprise you to learn that Alinghi and SNG don’t agree with BMW ORACLE over the latest court action? No of course not. SNG Vice-Commodore Fred Meyer was quick to respond yesterday to the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s latest litigation in the New York courts. For those that are still interested here’s what Meyer had to say…

“It’s a shame that BMW Oracle and Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) persist with their campaign to win the America’s Cup through litigation rather than on the water. This is the sixth time that they’ve taken the Defender to court. It is possible that Larry Ellison continues to revert to the courts to draw attention away from the fact that their boat does not meet the dimensions as per their Certificate of Challenge.

“Golden Gate Yacht Club’s speculations over the conduct of the Match before the Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions have even been written and published are simply premature and self-serving. They are designed to denigrate the reputation and achievements of the Swiss Defender, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), as well as the America’s Cup itself. BMW Oracle is once again dragging the America’s Cup through the courts on baseless grounds.

“The rules of the America’s Cup Match are as the donors of the Deed of Gift wrote over 130 years ago, when other American yacht clubs were the Defender. They are not as the Golden Gate Yacht Club or BMW Oracle would now, as a Challenger, like them to be, to suit their purposes.

Echoing Kevin Bacon’s words in the great courtroom film ‘A Few Good Men’ – Meyer’s statement says that the facts of the case are this:

1. In absence of mutual agreement between the Defender and the Challenger, the America’s Cup is ruled by the default terms of the Deed of Gift.

2. In accordance with the Deed of Gift, and as with all past America’s Cups, the defending yacht club is the organiser of the Match.

3. The Deed of Gift states that the challenging vessel should not exceed certain measurements. GGYC presented their Certificate of Challenge specifying a 90x90ft yacht. Today they must honour their own volunteered and freely submitted decision and their competing yacht must match those dimensions, as required by the Deed of Gift and ordered by Justice Kornreich. SNG does not wish to see GGYC disqualified; they have enough time to modify their boat so that it measures.

4. The rules of the Match will be the Deed of Gift, and the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing written and promulgated by the International Sailing Federation and used by yacht clubs all over the world, including GGYC and SNG.

5. The rules of the Match will be set out in a Notice of Race to be published on 6 November 2009 and in the Sailing Instructions to be published on 8 January 2010. These dates are considerably earlier than when an American Defender – whose Chief Operating Officer was Tom Ehman – provided the same documents to the then Challenger in 1988 when the Cup was last competed for under the strict terms of the Deed of Gift.

6. SNG has voluntarily provided GGYC with advance details of the rules and procedures affecting the construction and measurement of the competing yachts and continues to answer questions from and provide information to GGYC about these matters to allow them to prepare their yacht “USA”.

7. All Umpires and members of the International Jury will be solely selected by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Like all regattas and sporting competitions they, like the competitors, will be bound by the rules of the competition.

8. The Supreme Court of the State of New York has reviewed the agreement between SNG and ISAF, which follows past agreements approved by GGYC and found that: “[the agreement] is not inconsistent with anything in the Deed or the applicable rules. There is also nothing untoward about the agreement itself.”

Volvo Ocean Race organisers continue to paint a vision for the future, with the latest in the ’round table’ meetings presented in Galway. There are three pillars that are being used to steer the future of the race – the first element is a technical cost containment and reduction programme, the second, an increase on the value to teams, sponsors and ports involved in the race, and the third is to keep the race seriously attractive to the best sailors in the world.

The latest presentation focussed on technical rule changes to make the race appeal to a larger audience and to limit costs.

VOR CEO Knut Frostad opened the meeting by saying:

“Just like any sailing project the more time we have to prepare ourselves, the better the chances we have of doing a good job,” he said. “Our number one objective is to increase the number of competitors in the next race. We know that we need a larger fleet in the future for the race to be able to reach its full potential.”

“An important element in achieving more boats on the start line in Alicante in 2011 is a reduction of costs and an increase in value for the teams. In the short term, whilst the race is going on and whilst everyone has it fresh in their minds and is focused we have to work on the cost reduction side of the equation. To that end, changes already announced include a reduction in crew members, from 11 to 10, and nearly a 40% reduction in race sails.”

In an effort to encourage female participation, a new rule will allow ‘female’ teams to carry 12 sailors, including the media crew, two of whom may be men. This represents two extra crew members over an all-male crew.

Technical changes were also announced including:

• The maximum weight for the keel fin and bulb will be set at 7,400 kgs in the future.  The fin will be required to be solid, with no fairings permitted.
• The weight of the yacht is to be increased so that it may fit into the range between 14,000 kilograms and 14,500 kilograms.
• Headfoils will be banned; headsails will either be set on furlers or with hanks.
• The overall weight of each yacht’s batteries will be reduced by 100 kgs.
• Each Volvo Open 70 will also be required to carry a renewable energy source capable of generating 80 Watts of electrical power.
• No two-boat testing will be permitted until after the ‘race’ boat has been launched, or after a yet-to-be-defined date, which may be as late as the race start.

The next ‘round table’ session is scheduled for 22 June in Stockholm.

BMW Oracle’s spokesperson and all round back room wheeler dealer, Tom Ehman, has released a statement for his loyal supporters bemoaning the American team’s exclusion from the discussions about the 33rd edition of the cup. Opinion in the blogosphere was mixed and divided down party lines, but the American team’s choice of arguments were neutralised to a degree by the outcome of the second meeting amongst those teams who have officially entered and don’t have pending law suits against the defender. 

Ehman Objection: “None of the Challengers, except CNEV, has any vote on any matter. Moreover, CNEV is specifically exempted from acting on behalf of the other Challengers.” 

Meeting outcome: 10 of the 12 entered challengers present at the meeting, along with the Defender Alinghi, expressed a unanimous will to work together constructively towards a class rule and regulations that satisfy all entered competitors. 

Ehman Objection: “The Defender, through ACM, selects all race officials and umpires.”

Meeting Outcome: 

• The Arbitration Panel be expanded to five members, with the two additional members being appointed by all the entered competitors through a democratic process 
• The Race Committee has been agreed by all the entered competitors 
• Other America’s Cup Race Officials, the Technical Director and Umpires will be selected following a similar process amongst ISAF officials.