A decade that changed sailing

Helen Fretter takes a retrospective look at the years from 2010-2019, a decade of innovations that changed sailing forever

2010-2019 SAW UNPRECEDENTED CHANGES: FROM CONCEPTUAL DESIGN TO SIMPLE HANDHELD DEVICES THAT IMPROVED THE SAFETY OF EVERY SAILOR. WE TRACE SOME OF THE BIGGEST SHIFTS AND ASK: WHAT NEXT?

In January 2010 the Yachting World cover shot was of the giant Alinghi catamaran. Our headline wondered if the America’s Cup Deed of Gift multihulls were ‘The World’s Most Advanced Sailboats?’ At the time they felt like a futuristic experiment. But today that 90ft cat, with its non-foiling daggerboards, straight rudders and soft sail, looks astonishingly retro. When it comes to professional racing events, the years 2010-2019 were undoubtedly the decade of flight. Foiling technology has now filtered beyond inshore multihulls to offshore racers and even luxurious cruising yachts. But most of us do not, nor ever intend to, sail flying boat. So what of the rest of the sport? There’s no question that sailing faced huge challenges over the past decade – the global downturn post-2008 was a tough market in which to sell yachts. The past few years have been peppered with news of yacht builders being merged, or sadly ceasing trading. The financial services industry virtually disappeared from sports sponsorship. But other sectors are thriving. While some regattas have seen entries dwindle, cruising rallies are regularly full to capacity. And although new custom racing yachts seem thin on the ground, production catamaran launches are flooding the market. One thing the sport has done very successfully over the past decade is diversify. If you want to buy a boat to race offshore doublehanded, or set off on high latitude adventures, you now have not just one or two yachts to consider, but a wide choice of potential designs to choose from. There is a yacht to suit everyone. What you do with it, where, and when, has probably changed dramatically over the past ten years too… We look at some of the biggest shifts.