The title, "25 Years of Sailing," may not excite the masses. Even a young Ted Turner states in an opening film clip from the eve of the U.S.'s loss of the America's Cup in 1983: "I wouldn't say the nation's prestige is at stake. It's just a sailboat race, really."

But a sneak preview of Gary Jobson's one-hour special on ESPN Classic Wednesday night (6 and 9 p.m. PT, 9 p.m. ET) reveals it as more than just a sailing show, skipping from highlight to highlight. There are plenty of those, but this is just for sailors like "Seabiscuit" was just for horse racing fans.Jobson, who produced and narrated the program, instills the heart, soul, evolution and emotion of the sport into the production, ranging from kids sailing Optis to pros winning America's Cups and braving the Southern Ocean.

In the best circumstances it could not have been as easy task. Jobson, 54, is into the second year of his personal struggle against lymphoma. But this time he has outdone himself, drawing deeply from his own life as the sport's top TV personality.

He was there, at Newport, R.I. in '83, when Alan Bond and skipper John Bertrand turned the America's Cup on its ear. Jobson dug up what he says is aerial footage "unseen in 21 years" showing the desperate downwind jibes by Dennis Conner's Liberty trying to fight off the wing-keeled Australia II.

He was at Fremantle in 1986-87 as lead commentator for a fledgling network called ESPN whose staples were kick boxing and cheerleading contests when Conner faced off with his unfriendly rival, the late Tom Blackaller. One press conference exchange was more memorable than their battles on the water.

As they discussed New Zealand's first venture into the AC with fiberglass 12-meters, Conner said: "Since '78, 12-meters [have been] built all in aluminum, and so if you wanted to build a glass boat, why would you do it unless you wanted to cheat?"

Blackaller: "Woop! Ooooh, I don't think he should have said that . . ."

Conner (smiling): "I take it all back."

But it was out there, for all time: DC had called the Kiwis cheaters---and then had the last laugh. He brought the Cup back to America and his hometown of San Diego and, in the process, Jobson says, "revolutionized the America's Cup game."

Until '83 few people knew a Kiwi from a kangaroo. After '83, the AC---and sailing---changed dramatically. The 12-meter and IOR SUVs of the sea were out; light and fast were in to stay.

Sometimes they were too light, too fragile. Masts toppled like tenpins. Keels fell off. Hulls fractured. There was the unforgettable moment on a foggy day at San Diego in '95 when oneAustralia cracked open like a clamshell and slipped gracefully to the watery grave it still occupies off Point Loma.

At another memorable press conference that night Louis Vuitton moderator Bruno Troublé asked Bertrand: "Can you describe what happened on this leg to windward?"

Bertrand: "Well, the boat broke in half and sank."

Later, Jobson comments over scenes of hysterical Kiwis when Russell Coutts, the late Peter Blake and the team took the Cup home to Auckland and "even the sheep had tears in their eyes."

Alas, San Diego's eight-year era as an AC defender would be remembered most for its "outrageous" mismatch of a defense against New Zealand's blindside big-boat challenge with a catamaran in '88. "The protracted legal battle that followed was much more interesting," Jobson noted.

The Kiwis' era also would end with a sour taste---not tears in their eyes but anger in their hearts at Coutts and company for taking the Cup away for another country.

Beyond the America's Cup, the sport also was changing.

"Aside from all the well-organized races around the world, ocean racing in this quarter-century has taken a backseat to one-design racing," Jobson says. "[The year] 1985 marked the beginning of the cycle of round-the-buoy racing that has grown by leaps and bounds. Today's sailors prefer the hand-to-hand combat of short-course racing. It fits more comfortably into business schedules than offshore racing."

Women claimed their own ground. When the Olympics gave them their own 470 class in Korea in '88, America's Allison Jolly and Lynne Jewell-Shore won the first gold medals. By 2003 there were 67 entries in the Rolex Women's Keelboat Championship at Annapolis.

The show ends on a glorious note as Jobson narrates over scenes from England: "Shamrock and Endeavour were the belles of the ball at the most spectacular yachting event of the past 25 years, the America's Cup Jubilee in Cowes in 2001."

There were 208 boats, and the climactic reenactment of the historic 1851 race around the Isle of Wight, Jobson says, was a "once in a lifetime sight. The old schooners fighting the current at the Needles in the overcast were right out of a painting by Buttersworth."

No, not Brad Butterworth, Coutts' celebrated tactician, but Thomas Buttersworth, a leading maritime painter of the 19th century.

At the end Jobson lists his personal choices for the best five sailors of the quarter-century, but you won't see them here. You'll have to watch the show. You'll enjoy it.