AND ANOTHER THING

2010-2019 was also the decade that…

■ Introduced peer-to-peer boat lending. Will we charter boats on an ‘Airbnb’ basis’ in future?

■ We marvelled at the biggest superyachts ever launched: Sailing Yacht A, Black Pearl and Aquijo hit the water in 2015/16. At 142m, Sailing Yacht A was a huge jump from the 88m Maltese Falcon launched 15 years previously.

■ Double-handed racing boomed. Two-man crews can now compete in offshores including the Rolex Fastnet Race and Sydney-hobart, and regattas such as Cowes and Antigua Sailing Week.

■ Hugo Boss skipper Alex Thomson clocked up nearly 9 million Youtube views with his three unsurpassed media stunts: the keelwalk (2012); mast walk (2014); and skywalk (2016).

■ We all took up paddleboarding. The inflatable tech the SUP manufacturers developed also created a new stowable watersports genre including SUPS, kayaks, dinghies and windsurfers.

■ Spinnaker takedown systems turned kite-drops into five-second manoeuvres on pro racing yachts (but took away a traditional ‘nippers’ or ‘girls’ job on the boat in the process).

■ A man tried to sail the Atlantic in a 42-inch yacht (see the yachtingworld.com story on Undaunted).

■ The first woman skipper won a round the world race when Wendy Tuck led Sanya Serenity to 1st in the 2017-18 Clipper Race. Carolijn Brower and Marie Riou also became the first women to win the Volvo Ocean Race as part of the victorious Dongfeng crew.

What do you think was the biggest change in sailing over the past decade? Email your comments to yachting.world@ti-media.com