Chay Blyth: Initial take-up of his US-based New World Challenge was slow. But with 11 events now on the go risks are well spread

Ernesto Bertarelli and Russell Coutts light up the launch of the Swiss America's Cup Challenge

Editorial

In his interview with Seahorse, Chay Blyth points out that his business in sailing is exactly that, a business, and that as such it is essential to plan at least five years ahead. Perhaps it is time that a similar philosophy was positively applied to offshore sailing itself.

Look at the different aspects of offshore sailing; so many individual areas are undergoing major change that in an ideal world the board of directors would surely by now have called time-out for a working weekend, locked up in a plush country retreat to pontificate and then pronounce upon a new overall long-term strategy.  To me this idea is very appropriate for offshore sailing. Many separate areas of the sport have their individual problems, and most are closely linked with the fact that progress in our sport is generally piecemeal, dominated by the ‘need’ to preserve too much of the past.

Like it or not, much of the present model is either going to collapse, or much of the sport will be led in the future by commercial forces keen to put product in the market, which certainly best suits the immediate needs of the customer - but often without much of an overall ‘macro’ gameplan for the sport.

For the full version of this commentary please see the July 2001 edition of Seahorse International Sailing....

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