As new markets begin to discover yacht racing as a way to position high-end products to high-end customers, new brands are appearing on the sides of boats and associated sponsorship activation. Alongside French banks, we will begin to see more products from China, Korea and Russia.

In 2010, Synergy Russian Sailing team backed by BELUGA vodka, began sailing in the RC44 Tour. The team sponsorship has now turned into a tour sponsorship with the RC44 series announcing a partnership to make BELUGA an official sponsor for the 2011 season.

The release says:

The partnership is the next – and logical – step in BELUGA’s participation in sailing events. BELUGA luxury vodka embodies the spirit of the new Russia, through embracing age-old traditions and the latest in modern technology; showing close parallels between the beverage and the sport of sailing. Its decision to support the RC44 Class shows BELUGA’s plans to increase their involvement in the sport of sailing and the intention to bring to the BELUGA unique spirit of nobleness and fair rivalry to the RC44 Championships.

The RC44 series features 2 Russian teams. Racing began this week in Austria at an event that has been designed to showcase inland sailing in the country.

The rest of the RC44 2011 Calendar is:

• 2 – 6 March- Oracle RC44 Cup San Diego, USA
• 10 – 15 May- RC44 Austria Cup Gmunden, Austria
• 29 June – 3 July- RC44 Cagliari Cup, Sardinia
• 17 – 21 August- RC44 Marstrand Cup, Sweden
• 28 September–2 October -Spain
• 15 – 20 November- 2011 RC44 World Championships, Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

More sailing sponsorship news

Russell Coutts is the only sailor to appear in a list of  athlete’s salaries by ESPN. His reported $10,000,000 salary also makes him the most highly paid New Zealand athlete.

While the sum might be relatively small compared to superstars in major sports, the ‘per-game’ fee is significant indeed. Coutts is perhaps more an administrator than a sailor these days, so his salary reflects his business interests around the America’s Cup and the RC44 series, but if you divide the salary by the number of competitive events that Coutts competed in during 2010, then you get a pretty nice number.

As always, our maths is done on the back of an envelope, so we might be out a little, but roughly if you consider; 6 RC44 events, 4 Louis Vuitton Trophy Event, 1 Corporate gig during Cowes Week (1851 Cup) and The America’s Cup you get about $833K per event.

The ESPN list doesn’t break down the sources of income – in fact is says that the number is a base salary only. But since his official website lists only Oracle Racing as a sponsor, it would be safe to say that not a lot of the headline figure was generated through endorsements, personal rights fees or licenses.

More Sailing Business News.

The USA is a strange place. We get more emails from people in the USA than anywhere else criticising our commercial agenda and bemoaning the loss of ‘corinthian spirit’ in the sport of yacht racing. Yet this is the land that has the biggest, wealthiest, professional sports leagues on the planet. This is the country of NBA superstars, who created sports marketing and then reinvented it with Nike and Michael Jordan. This is a country of sports fans who want to be entertained, but sailing promoters have never had the will to really do it properly in America.

As a result, there is latent demand for the consumption of sailing as a sport. Perhaps Oracle Racing should have staged the the RC44 race before deciding that multihulls were the only way to entertain a crowd – a crowd that have been starved for professional yacht racing for years.

So fair play to the Sailing Events Association of San Diego for staging the RC44 event. It’s no surprise to us that a professionally staged event, marketed to the right audience would do well in the USA, though some seem taken aback by the response. The four-day “stadium” event with a start-finish line located within shouting distance of the Broadway Pier brought much larger than expected crowds to viewing areas stretching from the flight deck of the Midway Museum to the Broadway Pier to the Embarcadero to Harbor Island.

SEA-San Diego president John Laun said:

“We’ve exceeded our expectations for delivering a really good spectator friendly event. We hope to have the RC44s back every year, we’ve had a great time with them.”

Islas Canarias Puerto Calero owner-skipper Daniel Calero said:

“It’s been really nice sailing in San Diego. It’s like playing football with all the crowds behind you, screaming and clapping. San Diego Bay is amazing, great atmosphere.”

Russell Coutts added:

“The San Diego is one of our best for sure, it was just a great venue, lots of variables on the race course, lots of people here and lots of interest, it’s been fantastic. We are hoping to be back here again.

It’s a good sign for the America’s Cup that the sports fans are supporting events like the RC44. Perhaps they would have come out to see monohull match racing, but that ship has sailed and now we move on to a new era – and the fans will adapt.

More RC44 News

Hundreds of thousands of travel professionals will be in London this week for World Travel Market (WTM). Visitors to the event include everyone from B&B owners to rental car companies to representatives from cities and countries looking to increase tourism to their part of the world.

Over the last few years, the links between tourism and yacht racing promotion have been growing. There is real evidence to suggest that some professional sailing events do generate net gains for inbound tourism and many series are actively looking for new venues to partner with. It’s always interesting to see how the PR matches the reality when it comes to some of these partnerships, and WTM is a great way to see just how integrated the campaigns get.

In 2008 and 2009, yachtsponsorship.com visited World Travel Market to see how big sailing/tourism partnerships are being positioned to the travel trade. While governments and cities might be investing heavily, there has been little activation of these deals at places like WTM. The people responsible for selling major events in Valencia, Andalusia, Oman and Miami had no visibility of yacht racing events planned in coming months. New Zealand did a little bit better, with Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup news available from the official Tourism website.

In 2010, we will be especially interested to see how Alicante, Barcelona, Perth, Abu Dhabi, Oman, London (Weymouth & Portland) and San Francisco are positioning their destinations. San Diego wouldn’t normally be on the list, but a press release sent out last week suggests the RC44 event, scheduled for March 2011 hopes to have a positive tourism impact.

While the RC44 series primarily exists for it’s owner-drivers, it is selling a new event in San Diego as a spectacle for ‘race fans’. The RC 44 Cup will be supported by the SD Tourism Marketing District, a non-profit group dedicated to improving San Diego tourism and event organisers Sailing Events Association San Diego (SEA SD) has a board that includes representatives of the Lodging Industry Association and 98 Super Bowl Host Committee.

John Laun, President and CEO of SEA SD says:

“We’re excited to be bringing the RC 44 event to San Diego in 2011. San Diegans are huge fans of sailing and the RC 44 event will be a highly competitive international regatta bringing the best sailors in the world to America’s Finest City. The new Port Pavilion at the Broadway Pier will be a spectacular venue for race fans to view these races.”

More Sailing Tourism News…

While most of the speculation about the next America’s Cup boat rule is centred on multihulls, a monohull option would certainly take inspiration from the RC44. Designed by BMW ORACLE CEO Russell Coutts and campaigned by BMW ORACLE team members, the boat was also used in the America’s Cup technical television trials recently in Valencia.

The boat is used for match racing as part of the RC44 Championship tour and can certainly be exciting in high wind conditions. This year, the class will have its inaugural World Championship in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. 13 teams will compete including two new teams.

Synergy Russian Sailing Team from Russia has been competing in the TP52 class for many years and more recently in the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Peninsula Petroleum from Gibraltar this year joined the GP42 class on the Audi MedCup.

Maxim Logutenko, Synergy Russian Sailing Team’s CEO said:

“Our involvement with the RC44 class gives Synergy Russian Sailing Team the possibility to continue its development in the new ultra-modern sailing classes. We are absolutely sure that the RC44 class is an amazing prospect and that’s why we have decided to concentrate our forces on this circuit. Besides Transpac 52 and ACC5 regattas, the RC 44 Championship Tour will be an integral part of Synergy’s development and progress. It will give Russian sailors the opportunity to train and progress at an international level.”

Synergy Russian Sailing Team was founded in 2004; its main goal is to create a group of professional Russian-speaking sailors able to compete on equal grounds with the world’s most experienced teams. The RC 44 crew will comprise entirely Russian sailors. The team’s CEO is Maxim Logutenko, a former 49er sailor, has already competed as a guest on board BMW Oracle Racing during the RC 44 Valencia Cup. Logutenko will steer the boat during the fleet regattas while Evgeniy Neugodnikov will take the helm during the match races. A recent winner of the Baltic Match Race in Helsinki, Neugodnikov, born in 1982, is one Russia’s new talents.

With Team Peninsula Petroleum owner John Bassadone was a dinghy sailor as a child, but made his come back in yacht racing four years ago; his ambition is to keep improving as a driver and make steady progress in both match and fleet races.

“I am super-excited to join this Class. Because it has many features I really appreciate such as the one design and owner-driver concepts. The quality of the participants is also tremendous, and the Class is clearly progressing.”

Russell Coutts commented:

“We are very pleased to welcome these two new teams in the RC 44 Class. The RC 44 World Championships Islas Canarias Puerto Calero Cup will be the toughest regatta in the circuit so far.”

Bertrand Favre, the RC 44 Class manager, says:

“The objective of the Class is to carry on growing in Europe, but also in the United States where we are doing a specific promotional effort and have already planned two races in December 2010 and February 2011. We are very pleased to see new teams joining the Class, and to note that the interest for our Class keeps growing.”

More RC44 Business News…

The Defender of the America’s Cup BMW ORACLE will test both monohull and multihull boats using a series of TV trials over four days in Valencia. The aim is to develop methods for making the racing more enthralling for fans, more challenging for crews and better portrayed on television screens around the world. It’s an interesting process, but focussing on the hardware might not find the solution – assuming we know what the problem is.

The trials, July 22-25, will help confirm certain parameters of the new yacht, including reduced crew numbers to place a premium on boat-handling. Not only will the format of racing and type of boat come under scrutiny, but also television production.

The America’s Cup Media Evaluation Team has solicited opinions from a wide array of broadcasters, digital media and technology companies in Europe and the U.S. on how to make the racing more dramatic on-line, on-screen and on TV. Accepted standards of Cup racing are being challenged in the trials and no thought will be ignored in the quest to create the most compelling television production and delivering it to the widest-ever audience.

It’s an interesting process. Many sports have adapted their original format in order to attract a different audience. Twenty-Twenty cricket is the complete opposite of a 5 day Test match and Rugby 7′s opens up the game and makes it quicker, but neither of these formats have replaced the original version at the top level. The Ashes is still a series of 5 Day tests and the Rugby World Cup uses the full complement of players.

This week, the 150 year old Open Championship is being broadcast on the BBC in the UK. Only the most die hard fans care what clubs or balls are being used. The sport is popular because of the personalities – the stars are the players. Personally, I don’t find golf the most interesting televisual experience, but organisers haven’t felt the need to play with the format too much. The Open has a facebook page with over 12,0oo fans and hundreds of men and women are tweeting about the event.  The Open doesn’t see the need to make the game of golf any more interesting or ‘extreme’.

Nevertheless, BMW ORACLE are going to test the waters – literally, to see how the America’s Cup might be able to be made ‘better’. Russell Coutts says:

“We are testing many different concepts. Would making the first leg downwind instead of upwind be better? Can you have exciting boat-on-boat action with multihulls? Are there alternative race course formats which might provide more overtaking opportunities?” “Only by reviewing the accepted wisdom can we decide if there are smarter ways to challenge crews and excite fans.”

The trials will be conducted with two pairs of X40 catamarans and RC44 sloops. 3D and HD cameras will be experimented with to see if the onboard action is more dramatically portrayed, and the race format testing will include downwind and reaching starts.

Guest helmsmen such as Roman Hagara of Austria and Murray Jones of New Zealand will lead the crews aboard the X40s. James Spithill will be at the helm of one of the two RC44 yachts. They will race short-handed, eight-person crews to see if that adds a level of drama to boat handling that would be compelling for television.

More America’s Cup News…

Despite an exciting boat, top sailors and great events in premier locations, the RC44 Championship Tour is often overlooked when thinking about yacht racing’s top tier of events.

In a very unscientific poll down the pub, we asked a couple of sailing fans to think about the top (commercial) sailing events in the world – almost all mentioned the Volvo Ocean Race, several mentioned the World Match Racing Tour, the Audi Med Cup, the Extreme Sailing Series (previously – and still known as the iShares Cup), and a couple mentioned the Louis Vuitton Trophy – though it was described as “that thing where they race old America’s Cup boats”.

When prompted about the RC 44 Championship Tour, the reaction was: “Oh yeah – I always forget about that.”

Perhaps it is because the Class sits somewhere between amateur and professional and is aimed at boat owners rather than spectators, that the awareness is not higher, but given the names of the sailors on board the boats, the RC44 really should have more recognition.

To date, 22 RC44 One Design boats have been built. The Class has announced that two new boats will be constructed as the Class grows on the back of news that events will be held in the USA.

Certainly there is scope for more sailing circuits in the USA. In the country where NASCAR puts on a travelling show almost every week of the year, it’s a little surprising that no-one has managed to create a series using the 18 Foot Skiff or Extreme 40 or some other boat as a platform for a professional tour.

Will the RC44 Class be able to manage it? A project to expand to North America is underway. The first regatta on US soil, the Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami, will take place on December 7 – 12 in South Beach Marina.

RC 44 founder and co-designer Russell Coutts says:

“I really look forward to competing in Miami. First of all because it is a beautiful sailing venue, but also because it is a symbolic step for the RC 44 Class as it will be the first time we race on American territory. Our goal is to develop a parallel circuit in the USA, and to see the European and American fleets meeting during several events, including the yearly World Championship.”

Following the Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami, the first regatta of the Championship Tour 2011 will also take place in the United Sates (west coast) whilst other regattas will be organised on American waters in the coming years.

The American events are important. Notably missing from the World Match Racing Tour, the USA is a massive market that is not well served by sailing as a professional sport.

The RC 44 Class has also announced that its historical partnership with SLAM has been extended until 2012. SLAM is the RC 44 Class’ official clothing supplier; it provides the Class management, umpires, race officials and guests with technical clothes that are particularly well adapted to their work.

More RC44 News…

One of the great things about sailing, and one of the things that makes the professional sport of sailing so confusing is the diversity of classes. Classes come and go. Design rules outlive their usefulness or rich owners get bored and want to do something different. The RC44 class is a slow burner. After four seasons of the RC44 Championship Tour, the class has been recognised by the sport’s governing body and given permission to use the word ‘World’ in the title of a regatta.

The first official RC 44 World Championship will take place on October 11th – 16th 2010, in Puerto Calero (Canary Islands).

RC44 Class Manager, Bertrand Favre says:

“This is an important step for us. Over the past two years we have consistently organised races involving ten or more strict one-design RC 44’s representing ten countries. This number is due to increase over the coming months and the recognition by the International Sailing Federation comes as an acknowledgement of the hard work we have put into the development of this Class.”

The venue will be Puerto Calero, a spot that is well known for delivering exciting racing. Event organiser Daniel Calero says:

“It will be the second time that we welcome the RC 44 fleet in Puerto Calero. We are very proud to welcome the world’s best sailors to our venue. The fact that this event is the official World Championship is a great bonus for us as the event organisers, and a fantastic achievement for the Class.”

The RC44 Class should perhaps be more successful. The boat is designed by a sailor acknowleged to be one of the best in the business – Russell Coutts. The sailing is spectacular, the venues are desirable from a sponsorship point of view and some of the best sailors compete in both fleet racing and match racing. Moreover, the unique relationship between the series and logistics partner DHL makes the budget for running a team quite attractive.

It seems that the RC44 Championship, like many sailing events, is inwardly focussed. It seems to exist primarily for it’s owners, who afterall are the main customer. On this basis, the class is a success. Twenty-two RC 44 one-designs have been built to date. One of them has just been shipped to the US in order to be showcased to the American sailing audience and the first ever RC 44 Regatta is planned.

But as the America’s Cup teams, some of whom compete in the RC44 series, begin to design a new class for the America’s Cup and continue to invest in events like the Louis Vuitton Trophy and Audi Med Cup, you have to wonder about the longevity of such classes. How many circuits that require €700,000 – €1,000,000 to do 5 or 6 races can be supported?

More RC44 News…

No one would begrudge BMW ORACLE Racing a little time off after their win in the America’s Cup earlier in the year. The team has been participating in a well deserved celebration, but now they are looking to return to competitive sailing at the end of the month.

Over the last few years, the team has competed regularly in the RC44 Championship, a combination of fleet racing and match racing in boats designed by and named after BMW ORACLE CEO Russell Coutts. Despite a brief appearance in the Extreme Sailing Series Europe, brought about by the multihull nature of the last America’s Cup, the team will focus on monohull racing in 2010.

The first even that will see BMW ORACLE back on the water is the RC 44 Austria Cup. The team will compete in two boats at the event which has become a real fixture of the Austrian sailing calendar.

Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts will be competing under the BMW ORACLE Racing banner, while the winning skipper of the 33rd America’s Cup team, James Spithill, will be at the helm of a boat currently named ‘Boat 17’. Crew from the BMW ORACLE Racing team will be sailing on both boats.

The team at PROFS have made the RC 44 Austria Cup a popular stop on the circuit, set amongst the Austrian Alps on Lake Traunsee. The beautiful mountain lake is surrounded by ‘postcard perfect’ vistas, but the weather can be unpredictable, offering up challenging conditions for racing. The idea is to use the lake as a showcase for a large sailing festival, bringing tourists from miles around to experience all the region has to offer. The presence of America’s Cup winning sailors is a great drawcard for the event.

Ten world-class teams are expected in Austria, including the early leader in the RC 44 Championship, Artemis. The regatta is from April 29th to May 4th.

Following the RC 44 Austria Cup, BMW ORACLE Racing will return to Cup style racing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in La Maddalena, on the Italian coast of Sardinia, beginning on May 22.

Jimmy Spithill said:

“I’m really looking forward to getting back on the water and racing against the top teams again. Having had a look at the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in Auckland in February, I know we have a lot of work ahead of us to get our team competing at the highest level again. The RC 44 circuit and Louis Vuitton Trophy events are a great way for us to start that process.”

The team will continue to engage with fans via the social media platforms they enabled for the America’s Cup. In addition to the main team website at www.bmworacleracing.com, there is a team blog at http://bmworacleracingblog.blogspot.com, a YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/bmworacleracingteam, and a Twitter feed at: http://twitter.com/bmworacle2010.

BMW ORACLE seem to be keeping their options open with regards to the future of the America’s Cup. While the team is a member of the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) and are friendly with long-time America’s Cup sponsor (sorry – partner) Louis Viutton, the CEO of BMW ORACLE, Russell Coutts has his own racing series which has stepped up the match racing component in 2010.

Now the eponymously named RC44 series is heading for America, the home of the BMW ORACLE team and the new home of the America’s Cup. The RC 44 Championship has announced plans to develop a North American circuit. An RC 44 will be displayed in Newport (RI) this spring, allowing potential owners to test-sail the boat. A North American Championship Tour could be launched as early as 2011.

While Larry Ellison told Fortune Magazine that the Louis Vuitton Trophy would make a good support series for the America’s Cup, others comments have hinted that a new AC class may look like a scaled up RC44 and so having stong recognition of the one-design would help allign the amateur and professional side of the sport which is such a hot topic in the states.

Dee Smith, a professional sailor and project manager involved in top level yacht racing events, has been named RC 44 agent for North America. He said:

“This is a great opportunity to start a very exciting new One Design Class here in North America. The RC 44 has proven to be a huge success in Europe and we feel there is a need for a boat that is both exciting to sail and cost effective to run here in the States. We already have many established teams looking to acquire an RC 44 and get this party going.”

Bertrand Favre, RC44 Class Manager says:

“The North American circuit will be adapted to the owners’ desires. Some characteristics of the Class are fundamental, such as the One Design aspect, the amateur owner driver and direct umpiring. However we are also open to new ideas regarding the format of racing. One thing is sure: thanks to the easy logistics of the Class, it will be possible to sail in great locations in the US, both on the East and West coast and even on lakes.”

For a country like the USA which supports the NFL, NBA, MBL and NASCAR, the creation of a national sailing series should be easy. The announcement that the RC44 Class will establish an American footprint pre-empts any attempts by the Extreme 40 class to create an entertainment based national sailing competition, though with the return of the America’s Cup to US shores, there should be room for both and more…