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J.P. Morgan Asset Management will add to their sailing sponsorship portfolio by becoming the title sponsor of the Finn Gold Cup 2012. The company, which sponsors the Round the Island Race and British Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie, will support the Falmouth Finn Festival, which includes both the British National Finn Championship and followed by the Finn Gold Cup.

The Finn Gold Cup is the annual World Championship of the Finn Class, and also has a bearing upon Olympic selection for some nations. The Gold Cup fleet can be as many as 100 boats. The British National Finn Championship, the annual championships of the British Finn Association, will precede the Gold Cup and hopes to attract 40 – 50 boats from across the UK.

Roger Thompson, Head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management UK, said:

“We’re delighted to announce our title sponsorship of the Falmouth Finn Festival 2012. We’ve been involved in sailing for the last seven years as title sponsor of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race and we are also in our 5th year as title sponsor of Ben Ainslie supporting his bid to win a fourth gold medal at London 2012, so today’s announcement further confirms our commitment to the sport. J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s involvement in sailing continues to be thoroughly rewarding, not just in terms of our brand but also in helping us connect with our existing and potential clients. To be involved in an event like the Falmouth Finn Gold Cup with the best sailors in the world competing is an honour and we hope our support can make the event a great success.”

The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Finn Festival in Falmouth Bay, where Ben Ainslie began sailing. Ainslie is also a member of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club (RCYC) which will organise the event. He commented at the announcement of the sponsorship:

“It’s fantastic that the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club have won rights to host the Finn Gold Cup and have a title sponsor in J.P. Morgan Asset Management onboard. The Gold Cup is one of the most respected events in the dinghy calendar, which I’ve competed in on numerous occasions and have also been lucky enough to win. I first started sailing in these waters and some of my family still live in the area, it fills me with great pride that Cornwall will get to show off her excellent sailing facilities, I’m looking forward to competing in May 2012”

Peter Collett Commodore of RCYC, thanked J.P Morgan Asset Management for their support as well as other partners of the Finn Festival:

“The Royal Cornwall Yacht Club is extremely pleased to be hosting the J. P. Morgan Asset Management Finn Festival in 2012. The Finn Gold Cup has not been contested in this country for many years and will arguably be the most prestigious and competitive regatta ever to be sailed in Falmouth Bay. We are excited to have the opportunity to welcome a host of sailors from all over the world to our wonderful sailing waters in Falmouth. We are delighted to have our title sponsor onboard; the event could not take place without J.P. Morgan Asset Management support. We would also like to thank other generous partners including Cornwall Council, Cornwall Development Company/VisitCornwall, Falmouth Town Council, GUL International, Cornwall Ferries Ltd, Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, Falmouth Watersports Centre, National Maritime Museum Cornwall and Falmouth Festivals Ltd”.

More UK Sailing News

Sailing does a pretty bad job of appealing to a female audience. You’d think that sailing would be more attractive to women than a sport like NASCAR, but the America’s Cup Facebook page has an estimated breakdown of the gender demographics being about 74/26 in favour of men while NASCAR has a ratio of  54/46.

The audience for a sport obviously impacts upon the sponsorships that are available. Brands that are looking to develop relationships with women may have better options than sailing, though there are big exceptions. There are real opportunities for brands who are willing to back the female stars of the sport.

Team Tunnicliffe, a trio of Olympic sailors: Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi have announced a sailing sponsorship deal with Maclaren. Maclaren is a global lifestyle brand leader for parenting products. For nearly 50 years Maclaren has stood for excellence, empowerment and innovation, and is best known for the creation of the first umbrella buggy which revolutionized baby transport.

It is the first time the brand has sponsored the sport. The Team will now be re-named Team Maclaren.

Sailing of course has all the elements to promote a brand like Maclaren, but it is not a obvious choice for the mostly male sponsorship hunters who are looking to earn big commissions from financial services companies. Like many companies that sponsor sailing, the fit between a commitment to excellence and a platform to promote lifestyle, attributes, and heritage comes together in one place.

The sponsorship is the beginning of a larger initiative for Maclaren to align with the sport of sailing globally.

Team Maclaren is one of several major international programs within sailing the company has planned this year. As influential young athletes, Tunnicliffe and her team are perfect to represent the Maclaren lifestyle. They will serve as a visible reminder of exceptional women who believe it is possible to accomplish great things and also maintain a balance and quality in their active lives.

Tunnicliffe, who hopes to lead her team to a gold medal in 2012, says

‘We are very excited to partner with such a great company. Maclaren embodies the same values of performance, quality, empowerment and safety that we sail by every day. We’re just thrilled to be welcomed into the Maclaren family.’

The three members of Team Maclaren are currently balancing a busy schedule training for the Olympic Games and competing in premier regattas around the world.

More sailing sponsorship news

Following the recent news that Australian based sailing apparel brand Zhik, would sponsor the Laser SB3 World Championship, the company has announced that two time Moth World Champion, Simon Payne will head up UK operations for the brand.

Payne, who is one of Zhik’s sponsored sailors, will represent and market their sailing gear to British customers. Zhik Clothing is best known for it’s dinghy sailing gear with strong support of  Olympic classes, but more recently the company has expanded into the territory of clothing for bigger boats. Defending Laser SB3 World Champion Jerry Hill, with his crew Grant Rollerson and Matt Alverado will all wear the Zhik ISOTAK range during the Worlds to be held in Torquay in May.

The sailing apparrel market is in a state of flux at the moment. Traditional players have introduced brand extensions that take focus away from their roots. Henri Lloyd’s web homepage features a picture of a Formula 1 car and Musto now styles itself as an ‘Outdoor clothing’ brand, with sailing sitting alongside ranges for equestrian and shooting. These well known brands are facing innovative marketing campaigns from pure-play sailing brands like Sail Racing, MarinePool, and Magic Marine as well as increased activity from brands like Gill and Slam.

Simon Payne commented,

“We are delighted to have entered into this arrangement with Zhik. We believe the Zhik dinghy range is the best in the world and the new Isotak™ range is an exciting entry into the sports boat and keelboat market. With strong success already abroad, one of our roles is to establish this range within UK yachting. We will do this by working alongside the current Zhik sales organization to deliver great retailer support and good communication with customers”.

Brian Conolly, CEO of Zhik commented.

“Zhik is one of the fastest growing sailing brands in the world. With new products in the pipeline the time has come to ramp up our presence in the UK and I’m delighted to have engaged Simon and his company to head up our operation. Our goal is to deliver the Zhik experience to cruising and racing sailors alike and I’m confident that we now have the structure in place to support and grow our retailer base”

More Sailing Gear and apparel News…

Sailing is too complicated. We need to simplify it. Right?

One of the best sailors in the world is saying we should rewrite the rulebook and replace archaic nautical terms with language that is easier to understand.

Russell Coutts said the following in an interview about changing the rules for the America’s Cup recently.

It’s too complicated. We have a rulebook that is like this (holding up his fingers to show a thickness of about an inch). Frankly, I think people have got better things to do than sit at home at night and read the rulebook. Once upon a time, I used to read the rulebook quite a lot – now it bores me to tears to sit down and read a book of sailing instructions before a regatta. We’ve tried to simplify it. We’ve got all these archaic terms, all the nautical terms and all the yacht club BS and we need to get away from that if we are going to encourage more people to participate in the sport.

It makes sense on the surface, but is there a real need to change the rules, or does sailing just need to get better at communication?

Yes sailing has rules and jargon, but all sports have rules and jargon. Formula One racing has two rulebooks – one of sporting regulations which is 37 pages and one of technical regulations which is 63 pages.

Rugby has only 22 rules, but rule 20, which relates to a scrum has 12 parts and some of those parts have 9 sub-parts. Russell Coutts, a New Zealander who by his nationality should understand Rugby, should try explaining the difference between a ruck, a maul and a scrum to people who don’t follow the game.

Here’s an example from the official rules

A maul begins when a player carrying the ball is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier’s team mates bind on the ball carrier. A maul therefore consists, when it begins, of at least three players, all on their feet; the ball carrier and one player from each team. All the players involved must be caught in or bound to the maul and must be on their feet and moving towards a goal line. Open play has ended.

But Rugby is an old fashioned game, what about the sports that excite the facebook generation? Well skateboarding includes terms like Nollie, Fakie and Indy and snowboarding features phrases like caballarial, crossbone method air and Elgeurial.

An Elgeurial(BFM) is an invert where the halfpipe wall is approached fakie, the rear hand is planted, a 360 degree backside rotation is made, and the rider lands going forward.

So that’s simple isn’t it.

You can’t really imagine Tiger Woods coming out and saying ‘let’s get rid of all this golf club BS, we need new terms for caddie, tee and eagle. Bunker is too hard to explain, so let’s dumb it down to sand-trap.’

Coutts’ argument is echoed by broadcasters trying to make Olympic sailing more accessible for a TV audience. Some think that having an event where the first person across the line is not always the winner is too hard to explain, yet hugely popular events like the Tour de France don’t seem to have a problem with it.

There are many events in the Olympics where this happens – shooting, decathlon, diving, gymnastics and most field events in the stadium.

While it’s great that sailing is finally thinking about the people watching and not just the people competing, it would be a great shame to dumb the sport down while other relatively complicated activities help their audience understand. Poker has managed to educate millions of people about blinds, flops and rivers

The idea that sailing needs to be simplified is a lazy alternative to making the effort to teach the rules to a new audience.

It could be argued, that having a distinct terminology, that celebrates proud nautical heritage of most countries’ history is a great thing for the sport and that having invested the time to understand the rules, a fan is more likely to be a long-term supporter. If a spectator doesn’t have to learn the rules, then they can switch their attention away from the sport more easily when the event is over.

One of the reasons that Russell Coutts is such a great sailor is that he spent the time to read the rulebook. The best athletes of all sports are the ones that know the rules better than the others. The best F1 teams are the ones that interpret the technical regulations most cleverly, the best rugby teams are the ones that understand the differences between the way northern and southern hemisphere referees interpret the rules.

Sailing should be proud of it’s terms. Rather than being ‘yacht club BS’ they permeate our everyday lives without us realising it. The phrases of business and teamwork borrow heavily from nautical tradition – phrases like; all hands on deck, as the crow flies, and perhaps the most used sailing phrase in recent times, bail out.

Sailing should remind audiences, both new and old that when they use phrases like; above board, by and large, carry on, high and dry or overhaul, they are nautical phrases. Why would we give up these terms and replace them with what some marketing or broadcasting person thinks would work better?

What do you think? Is sailing too complicated? Should it be dumbed down?

You might imagine that with the return on investment tourism authorities are looking for from sailing events, there would be more end-to-end thinking about how to link travel with sailing. In reality, even though the name of the host-city is on the website or the bow or the spinnaker, there is almost no joined up thinking between event promoters and tourism promoters to actually convert the interest in the event into hotel bed nights or spending in local restaurants.

The Perth 2011 ISAF World Championships have announced a partnership with QANTAS holidays. According to the statement:

Travel and accommodation sporting packages in Perth for the ISAF Sailing World Championships in December have become much easier to book… Travellers to Perth will be able to book accommodation, flights and membership packages through Qantas Holidays, with the company being the Official Travel Partner of the Perth 2011 World Championships.

It’s a great idea, and more sailing events really should be working more closely with their partners and travel affiliates to help fans and visitors attend the event. In reality, this deal, as far as we can make out, means that QANTAS will sell VIP hospitality tickets ranging in price from $AUD 280 (Crew Club) to $AUD 1013 (John Bertrand Club Membership). This is confirmed by the statement released - Perth 2011 Chief Operating Officer, Darren Beazley, welcomed the participation of Qantas Holidays as a benefit to visitors coming to Perth, saying:

“Qantas Holidays will help raise awareness of our exciting John Bertrand, Gold Medal and Crew Clubs, which give members a range of access and other privileges during the event.”

The site navigation from a visitor to the Perth 2011 website goes like this: Homepage -> About WA -> Getting to Western Australia -> QANTAS Australia Homepage. If you then search a little around the QANTAS website you can eventually find the page where they are selling the tickets, but they are not attached to any travel products.

The site navigation should go: Homepage -> deep-link to QANTAS Perth 2011 travel packages.

The official statement ends:

The dream begins in Perth, the journey begins with Qantas Holidays. For more information, call Qantas Holidays on 13 14 15 to book membership and accommodation packages.

So we did…

Calling QANTAS Holidays (From London), we got exactly what we expected. The incredibly professional folks didn’t have any information to hand and hadn’t been briefed – but that’s  not their fault. They were happy to go and find out all they could about the deal.

For international visitors, the process is not straightforward. A bit of research by one of QANTAS’ super-friendly people suggests that the packages are on the Australian systems and not easily offered to international travelers. They are going to get back to us with more details.

If events like this are actually going to deliver tourism, and not just have it as a headline, then different parts of the supply chain need to work more closely together.

More Sailing Tourism News…

Pilote Media are working to make the sailing travel experience easier for promoters and spectators. If you would like to talk to us about this initiative, please email partners@pilotemedia.com or call +44 7900 975 413

It seems that hosting a sailing event is the thing to do if you are a tourism organisation looking to promote your marine activities and lifestyle. At the professional end of the sport, events like the World Match Racing Tour and the America’s Cup World Series are looking for new venues, while the Volvo Ocean Race has a well established process for bringing their event, and the return on investment it delivers with it.

Spain has has aggressively pursued events at the top end, building on successes in Valencia with the America’s Cup in 2007, the country managed to lure the Volvo Ocean Race to Alicante and Barcelona has created the Barcelona World Race for Open 60 yachts. The Andalucia region of Spain has also worked closely with the Extreme Sailing Series over the last few years and there are two round of the Audi Med Cup contested in Spain in 2011.

Now ISAF have announced that Santander in Spain will host the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships which combines all the events included in the Olympic Sailing Competition.

According to the release:

Santander is a modern, well structured city, which has sailing as part of his heritage and culture. The 2014 Worlds will see competitors racing in the natural setting of the Bay of Santander. One race course will be within the Bay, two opposite El Sardinero’s beaches and one opposite El Puntal beach allowing spectators the opportunity to follow the regatta and athletes. Excellent facilities for sailors, closeness to the city and excellent public access mean that the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships will be a great event for competitors and spectators.

Santander has experience of hosting major national and international sailing events. In the last ten years the city has hosted the 29er World Championship, Yngling World Championship and J80 World Championship.

Jerome Pels, ISAF Secretary General said:

All of the bids that we received were of extremely high quality and demonstrated that there is a big desire and commitment to hosting top level sailing events. The decision ISAF had to make was very difficult. We are confident that Santander will host a superb event for sailors and spectators as well as providing excellent coverage to a worldwide audience through the internet and television.”

Gerardo Pombo, President of the Spanish Sailing Federation said:

“We are very happy because it was a very difficult contest. All the candidates were strong. We sincerely believe that the 2014 ISAF Worlds will be a great success, with the contribution of all the institutions, the businesses and the individuals who are involved in the project.”

More Olympic Classes Sailing News

This article contains almost no original content by Yachtsponsorship.com writers. While we really do hate the trend of ‘cut and paste’ web content and strive to add some comment and opinion, in some cases it doesn’t add anything. Yet, we think that this story should be of interest to our audience so we offer it almost 100% as it was written by the PR people at US Sailing. In the future, stories about Sailing jobs will be published on the Dark Blue Book.

US Sailing, the National Governing Body of the sport, has officially appointed Jack Gierhart as Executive Director. Gierhart has served as the organization’s acting Executive Director since October of 2010 following the retirement of Charlie Leighton. He had served as the Associate Executive Director since November of 2009.

More than 80 individuals were considered for the position and seven candidates with a wide range of experience, expertise and perspective were evaluated by the Search Committee in interviews and through referencing. Gierhart was selected from this thorough process to lead US Sailing.

US Sailing President Gary Jobson said:

Jack has played an integral role with the organization for over six years and brings a wealth of experience to US Sailing. We look forward to working with Jack in the coming years.

Gierhart said

‘I am very excited about this opportunity to work with the board, our volunteers, and staff. We have a great team here at US Sailing, and with our current momentum there is a lot of opportunity. We will continue to focus on improving our core programs, but also look forward to new ideas, initiatives and strengthening support of local sailing organizations that are critical to the future of sailing in the United States.’

Gierhart has garnered over 20 years of sales, marketing, and general management experience in the technology and marine industries. He has spent over six years at US Sailing in two separate stints. Gierhart first joined US Sailing in 2002 as the organization’s 1st Marketing Director. During his four years as marketing director, he managed the marketing, sponsorship, web, and licensing programs. Since re-joining the US Sailing in 2009, Gierhart has been focused on growing the organization’s membership base and improving the overall information technology infrastructure, content management and outgoing communications initiatives.

Prior to his return to US Sailing, Gierhart was the founder and CEO of MessageSherpa, an online communications company, from 2007 to 2009. As Executive Vice President of Nautor’s Swan U SA, Gierhart was responsible for developing strategies and implementing sales, marketing, and customer service plans to reinvigorate U.S. business for the company. During his six years with IBM, Gierhart served as a Global Sales and Business Development Manager where he developed worldwide sales strategies and enablement programs to expand software sales and consulting services.

An avid sailor, Gierhart sails both competitively and recreationally. In addition to circumnavigating Alaska and sailing much of the east and west coasts of the U.S., he has participated in numerous Bermuda races and enjoys sailing Lasers, H12s, Shields, J/105s, and J/80s. He has been a proud member of the Beverly Yacht Club (Mass.) since 2002.

More Sailing Appointments

While the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy must be in line for some of the newly announced Marine Industry Awards, the venue has recognised outside the industry by being shortlisted for a 2011 Sport Industry Award.

The WPNSA, which will host the sailing events during the London 2012 Olympics has been selected as amongst the best entries in the category ‘Sport Participation Event of the Year’.  Other shortlisted events include: Deloitte Ride Across Britain, Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run, Bupa 30th Great North Run, The Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon and The Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile.

The Academy was nominated on its youth event involving a large number of Optimist dinghies which received a Guinness World Record for ‘largest parade of boats’.

The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy which is supported by sponsorship from SSE Energy, Charles Russell LLP and Musto has been shortlisted twice in the 10 years of the awards and has won the ‘Environmental Concern in Sport’ category in the past.

John Tweed, Chief Executive of WPNSA says:

‘Our wall of awards builds year on year adding to global awareness of what a truly unique environment we cultivate at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and how we always aim to include so many different sporting enthusiasts within the activities offered. It is particularly pleasing that, in addition to our work with the elite sailors, an event involving young people participating in the sport has been recognised. The Sport Participation Event of the Year is a very high achieving category to have been shortlisted in and for our hard working team at the Academy a very much deserved recognition for the consistent hard work they put in year round to generate such satisfying results’.

While many of the Olympic venues are still under construction, the WPNSA has already staged  successful major events and will host several National Championships and other sailing regattas in 2011.

More Olympic Sailing News…

As sailing becomes more closely aligned with developing venues, specifically marine infrastructure and waterfront property, more property companies are getting behind the sport. High profile examples include the Monsoon Cup, finale of the World Match Racing Tour and partnership between Muscat the Wave and the Extreme Sailing Series winning Oman Sail boat.

At a local level, the Warren Jones Regatta in Perth was supported by property companies and trend seems to be spreading in Western Australia.

The Perth2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships have announced support from national property group, Peet Limited, which will become a Silver level sponsor.

Originally established in Western Australia and with more than 115 years of property experience, Peet is focused on acquiring, developing and marketing land under a funds management model. The company will be associated with the national promotion of the Perth2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and be closely involved with the John Bertrand and Gold Medal clubs whose members are supporting this exciting international event.

Peet Limited Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Gore, said the company was extremely pleased to partner Perth2011 and help focus national and international attention on Western Australia.

“In its early years, Peet was instrumental in opening up some of the very prestigious suburbs around Perth’s most popular sailing clubs and we’re looking forward to sharing our story and our future plans with the thousands of participants, spectators and visitors who come to Perth for this outstanding sailing event. Peet will be giving its full support to Perth 2011 and wish the organisers every success.”

Perth 2011 Chief Operating Officer, Darren Beazley, welcomed the Peet Silver level sponsorship as a major boost for the ISAF Sailing World Championships.

“We are particularly pleased to have attracted the support of a company that was established in Western Australia and has now expanded to become a national success story,” Mr Beazley said. “It is important to have the strong backing of a major enterprise in an event of such national and international importance.”

Despite Perth 2011 being an international event hosted in Australia, the vast majority of sponsors announced so far have been Australian companies.

More Olympic Sailing Sponsorship News.