Good Dissection of Where Sailing is Headed

[RaymondR]

It was Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko, and I believe yes, "lightships" were either Asimov, Heinlein or another from the great Era of Science Fiction. I remember reading about a lightship race where there were several participants in an old book

One of the more interesting writings on sailing is in a book called The Algebraist by Ian Banks.

The regatta is set on a gas giant like Jupiter and I think the sail boats sail around the inside of cyclonic disturbances and it is the action of the sails working against the strong magnetic fields which drive the yachts. Anyway, if you are a hard science fiction fan it's a good read.

[Polux]

In what regards top sail racing I have seen an increase in top racing American boats on the last years. True that contrary to European ones they are not normally owned by Sponsors but by millionaires but maybe that increases the interest in sailing since true top sailing racers provide spectacular video and TV images and therefore they are broadcast because general public like spectacular images.

Also the Caribbean circuit has been increasing in number and quality of racing boats (many are Europeans that's true) and I believe that is also meaningful.

I made (sometime ago) a post on my blog about the increase in quality of this year's edition of the Caribbean 600. The images don't leave any doubts about that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwc51-sDp9M