Olympic ice sailing?
I have been watching and enjoying the winter Olympics in Torino for
the past week, and I got to thinking yesterday: why isn't ice sailing
an Olympic sport? It is no more eccentric than the myriad other
winter sports that seem like the result of a drunken bet (okay, first set
your forhead on the end of a ski pole and run around it fifteen times,
then ski down this hill and shoot at some stuff with a rifle...).
Has anyone ever looked into this? There must be a process for getting
the sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
Fortunately, the sport of sailing enjoys medal opportunities during
the summer Olympics (33 medal opportunities to be exact). Why not
during the Winter Olympics? I think ice-sailing would make great
television (something that we regretably cannot often say for the
summer counterparts).
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Getting Iceboating to the Olympics ain't that simple...
Nice thought, the idea continues to be discussed. One of the biggest champions of the concept of Olympic Ice Sailing is British DN Sailor, Chris Williams (K1). It would be a hoot to watch the best in the fleet slugging it out for olympic recognition.
There are some logistical/political/budget issues that sort of get in the way.
This year we moved the DN North American Championships from Montreal Quebec /Burlington Vermont to OshKosh Wisconsin, and finally to Lake Pepin WI, sailing out of Red Wing Minnesota.
A quote from last year's British Team's trip to the European Championships...
"MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14 2005:
E m a i l M e s s a g e :
Report from Northern Sweden
The British ice yacht team joined by 170 competitors from 14 nations for 2005 European Championships has been hit by the bad weather in Europe, first when the England team had no idea where the European Championship might be. The team's plan was to drive to Berlin, with a possible choice of Poland, Hungary or Sweden as the venues. On the way to Germany they had a phone call to turn to Sweden, so headed north still not sure exactly where...."
The Olympics are in Italy... I wonder where the closest boatable ice is... two weeks ago they were boating at Lac St. Point on the Swiss / French Border... They seem to have ice in Germany right now. Neither of these solutions would be likey acceptable to: the organizers, the advertisers, the host governments or the TV teams... it's a 6+ camera shoot.
I'm pretty sure the organizers of the Torino Games have a deal with either the host Governments or the Sponsor Advertisers that all of the events shall be conducted in Italy.
When the Games were in Salt Lake City, we discussed the possibility of ice sailing, the organizers were constrained to keep all the events in Utah, you couldn't even go to Idaho or Montana to sail, the prospect of going to excellent ice in Alberta or Saskatchewan Canada was unthinkable.
If the games were held in say Japan, and there was no boatable ice, not at all an unexpected outcome, where on earth could people go to sail, China? Korea? Mongolia?
The alternative solution to the one we adopt, i.e., going to the great ice, can be overcome by making ice, but you have some infrastructure issues... you must freeze the equivalent of 17,000 ice hockey rinks to allow a minimal 3/4 mile course. This solution depending on average temperatures at this grounded / manufactured venue might require several million horsepower of generation capacity, say 5 million horsepower. Of course you'd have to string some pretty big powerlines to a large relatively flat piece of ground, which I'm pretty sure somebody plans to plant crops on later in the year. You'll also need enough snow removal equipment to clear a major airport.
I'll leave alone the question of whether "raising" iceboating to olympic levels would be good for the health or growth of the sport. This group of sailors is pretty passionate about the game, maybe we should get 5214 to put up a little poll and ask our readers what they think.
Further, the ISAF may have a relationship with the IOC, and for a number of reasons, the IDNIYRA and other iceboating organizers have little reason or need for these softwater sailing people to intermediate or administer the politics of iceboating, we talk to them, but they aren't our governing authority. I certainly don't want to think about some softwater sea lawyer ever involved in hearing a protest situation/appeal involving a collision or near collision, say a mark rounding at 60+ kts (100 feet per second) and having an insigntfuly meaningful opinion.
To your other point, iceboating does make great television,... when the breeze is on, absolutely... when it's not, it's a winter track distance race, i.e., a 10K run pushing an iceboat. One of iceboatings best friends, Peter Crawford of Head Injury Media shot a little video, it's worth watching for sure... 45 boats & big breeze... it's the best iceboating footage I've seen.
http://iceboating.net/node/1352
Thinking ice
4695