I’m delighted to say the 2016 international racing season has exploded into life with lots of exciting regattas taking place around the world every week now. Happily for us sailing fans, most major events these days offer some sort of live streaming of the racing, so we can see the action as it happens from the comfort of our office desk or even our couch at home.

I have been impressed recently by how quickly the quality of this live coverage is improving. Case in point, the joint Olympic classes world championships for the Nacra 17, 49er and 49erFX, in Florida earlier this year.

The event organisers had hired a small but efficient media team who delivered superb footage and commentary on the post qualification stages of the event. Most impressive was the use of an aerial drone camera to give the big picture fleet perspective as well as being able to quickly focus in on a specific mark rounding, or boat-on-boat incident. The drone footage, combined with an on-the-water camera plus on-board footage from a selection of the top boats which ad been fitted with Samsung mobile phones, enabled Veteran pundits Andy Rice and Peter Lester to deliver highly engaging expert analysis of the racing.

I also enjoyed the live coverage of the first of the new multihull World Match Racing Tour events from Freemantle, Australia. Glitzier in style than the Olympic classes event, the production was very overtly a marketing tool for the new-style Tour and the one-design M32 catamarans the teams were racing on. The action was scintillating and to my mind puts paid to those who feared the introduction of multihulls might have meant match racing making way for drag racing. The racing was certainly fast and it was often furious, but there was also plenty of boat handling finesse and astute tactical plays for match racing aficionados to appreciate.

I have chosen just two examples, but there are plenty of other events, like the America’s Cup, or the Extreme Sailing Series – this season in foiling catamarans for the first time – or the monohull 52 Super Series, to name just three, that offer racing fans the chance to watch some of the best sailors in the world plying their trade.

While it’s great for those of us who like to watch this sort of coverage, either live or as highlight reels after the event, I think it’s also good for the image of our sport in general. Surely the hundreds of thousands – possibly over a million by the time you read this – views of the WMRT Facebook videos must result in some new recruits to try their hand at sailing?

If you haven’t seen any of the footage I have been talking about yet, I encourage you to check out the World Match Race Tour’s Facebook or YouTube pages. If you like what you see, then share it with a few of your sailing and non-sailing fans and help spread the word.