Invisible Events. Why reporting is a good idea.
by Guy Nowell 7 Mar 2019 15:06 AEDT
9-10 March 2019
Asian Open Laser Championship 2019. No caption supplied © SingaporeSailing
When there’s a regional championship for one of the biggest dinghy classes in the world taking place on your patch, you think there’s going be some race coverage. We expected to be leading with a story about the first Asian Open Laser Championships, which fired off on Tuesday. 64 competitors from 14 different nations (THA, HKG, IND, TPE, SGP, KAZ, MRI, JPN, ITA, CAM, INA, CHN, AUS, OMA), but if you haven’t heard of what should really be quite a major occasion, it may be because organisers SingaporeSailing “are unfortunately extremely understaffed on the marketing side, so no manpower to produce reports. We may do a final report.” Quote, unquote.
That’s not a good effort from a National Sailing Authority. All the major sailing events in Asia manage to run daily media stories – the recent Hong Kong Raceweek is a good example, and you can add in everything else from Phuket King’s Cup to the Top of the Gulf. Reporting of events gives exposure to sponsors, recognition to the competitors, and a pat on the back to everyone else. No reporting means a black hole of information. We’ll let you know what happened at the Asian Open Laser Championships when it’s all over. Maybe.
Meanwhile, there are results from Sailwave: https://sailing.org.sg/sailwave/2019/AsianLaser/Results.htm#summarylaser
And here is a link to some photos: (https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMugjgXHHQ2YmVnVFHm6ibPtvnW29-zu84-4V6MoPaCqMdMuwN_0H3x7axyy1VHdA?key=RFFwaWxUTjJ1Mlc3aTBmX3RibjI0SGpPOUFqQVZB)
and an Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18014328802186029/
Staying with media matters: the Yachting Journalists’ Association Yachtsman of the Year title was first awarded in 1955, and is the oldest award of its kind in the world. Yesterday the YJA presented two hugely prestigious prizes, and wrote a littl history at the same time. The title of Young Sailor of the Year went to 15-year-old Emily Mueller, winner of the Volvo Gill Optimist British National Championship, and the YJA Yachtsman of the Year went jointly to Tracy Edwards (no introduction required) and Nikki Henderson, skipper of the 2nd-placed ‘Visit Seattle’ in the 2017/18 Clipper Around the World Race – the first tie in 60 years of the YOTY awards, and the first time for an all-ladies awards ceremony. Congratulations all round.
The America’s Cup is an odd beast. It drives so many of us completely nuts in the preamble, and we swear that we are no longer interested – and then it gets going and we are all glued to the screen again (assuming you can see it on something more than just a phone!). Now the Malta Altus Challenge has just had the nationality rule wiped off the qualifications, and that’s a shame.
If you like a lot of admin with your regattas, try entering the AC! Why on earth these people can’t issue an NoR, write some SIs to comply with the Deed of Gift, and name a date is quite beyond me. If any other regatta that I can think of became embroiled in performance bonds, arbitration panels, late challenges, preliminary regattas, shared design packages and clubs masquerading as companies (or is it the other way round?), then everyone would just pick up their balls and go home. But this is the America’s Cup: it exists on a different planet, and we love it. But seriously… how hard can you make it?
Next up in my parish: Hong Kong Interschools Sailing Festival this weekend 9-10 March. Team racing, no nationality regs, boats supplied, and a bucket of fun thrown over the top. There will be media reporting.
Standing by on 72.