But ocean racing, despite advances in technology happens ‘out there’ and so VELUX need to ‘activate’ their sponsorship in a visible way on shore. To that end, the company has opened the carbon neutral VELUX House in the French port of La Rochelle.

Sir Robin Knox Johnston said:

“There are now less than 100 days to go until the start of the VELUX 5 OCEANS and things are really starting to get exciting. The opening of the VELUX House in La Rochelle marks the race’s commitment to sustainability and will be a fantastic centrepiece of our environmentally friendly race village.”

Located at the centre of La Rochelle’s maritime district on Esplanade Eric Tabarly in the Bassin des Chalutiers, the VELUX House will showcase to the public how it is possible to build carbon-neutral homes by using the abundance of passive thermal solar energy coming through the roof windows while also creating a healthy indoor climate.

The VELUX House will remain for one year in La Rochelle, serving as a point of information on the race for the visiting public and people of La Rochelle, updating them on news from the ocean sprints, skippers and stopovers. It will equally be used as a venue to showcase sustainability exhibitions and educational seminars on climate change, inviting personalities such as Jean-Louis Etienne and Catherine Chabaud to present their activities.

M. Langrand, President of VELUX France, commented:

“I am very happy to open the VELUX House that the people of La Rochelle will host in their port for an entire year. This CO2 neutral building is a new way of living within which, alongside its energy performance, interior comfort is delivered thanks to the maximum use of natural light and optimal ventilation.”

The VELUX House will form the centrepiece of the VELUX 5 OCEANS race village, overlooking the pontoons which will host the competing Eco 60s. The race village will be open to the public from October 9 and will carry the message of TAKING ON THE ELEMENTS, the race’s sustainability mission, supported by an exposition from race transport partner Maersk Line and other local eco exhibitors from the La Rochelle region. During the weekend of the race start, October 15 to 17, the International VELUX Award for Students of Architecture will be hosted in La Rochelle, centred round the theme of sustainable living, and the VELUX House will be a showpiece for the winners and 600 attending guests from around the world.

The VELUX House is a building experiment that demonstrates how a conscious combination of sustainable architecture, carefully selected components and the building’s surroundings can play a role in tackling some of the major climate and population challenges faced by urban areas all over the world.

More Velux 5 Oceans Race News…

One of the World’s very best ocean racing skippers, Jourdain is a two-times IMOCA World Champion and has won the Transat Jacques Vabre twice as well as the infamous Route du Rhum, but as UK skipper Mike Golding has shown, the transition from solo offshore monohulls to the intensity of multiple races per day,  close to shore on a multihull is not an easy one.

However, Jourdain is not new to catamarans. In 1989 he was crowned Formula 40 World Champion, the catamaran made famous in the Hollywood movie, The Thomas Crowne Affair.

Jourdain commented:

“Our participation in Cowes Week in August is an excellent occasion for us to be up against the big champions from all countries. I hardly sailed multihulls for the past ten years so it will be a tough task, but it will be a pleasure to be on the Formula 40s of the third millennium.”

The announcement is important for the series. Sometimes accused of being more like a travelling circus than a sailing event, the Extreme 40 series features some of the world’s very best sailors. While OC Group CEO Mark Turner is not shy about positioning the series as entertainment on a sailing platform, the participation of some of the biggest sailing names and their sponsors is proof that the balance of sport and entertainment is just right.

Jourdain will join Loïck Peyron, Franck Cammas, Yann Guichard at the Cowes Event.

The Extreme Sailing Series at Cowes Week will see more racing than ever before with six days of action right off the shorefront at Egypt Point every afternoon. For the first three days racing will be from 3pm and for the final three days the shore side entertainment will start from 4pm to ensure as many competitors taking part in Cowes Week will be able to enjoy the action.

As part of the Extreme Sailing Series’ initiative to engage with the wider community, Veolia Environnement will be supporting the charity Plan France, the French arm of Plan International, one of the oldest and largest children’s development organisations in the world, founded over 70 years ago. Plan works in 48 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty. Plan works with more than 3,500,000 families and their communities each year and is independent, with no religious, political or governmental affiliations. Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.

More Extreme Sailing Series Europe News…

As the Oman Sail project moves into its next phase of promoting the sultanate as a tourism destination, Oman Air has announced that it will sponsor the programme’s Arabian 100 trimaran – Majan.

The initial platform for the sponsorship will be the 2010 Route de Rhum is a transatlantic single-handed 4,000-mile yacht race that takes place every four years. Most of the media exposure will be in France, which suits Oman Air who are trying to increase their brand awareness in the European market, building on Oman Air’s services to France, Germany, and the UK. From September 2009, Oman Air began direct flights between Paris and Muscat. The sponsorship aligns Oman Air, Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism’s marketing strategies in Europe, with all three taking an active role in the Route du Rhum project.

Said Peter Hill, CEO of Oman Air said:

“With Oman Air’s ongoing initiatives in promoting Oman as a unique destination throughout Europe, our sponsorship of the Route de Rhum blends well with our efforts to both position Oman as a destination of choice and Oman Air as an exclusive brand amongst our target market in France. The timing of the event coincides perfectly with France’s premier travel trade show (Top Resa) which takes place towards the end of September, giving Oman Air, Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism the perfect opportunity to actively promote Oman as a business, trade and tourism destination.”

There is no doubt that the event is big in France, however it is a bit of a stretch to believe the claim by race organisers that

…the race is held second in popularity to the FIFA World Cup by the French Media.

David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail said

“We are delighted to have Oman Air as Majan’s sponsor as she will symbolise Oman’s vitality and innovation as she competes in one of the most prestigious and challenging offshore races in the world. Within the Sailing fraternity, we have spent two years promoting Oman as a destination. This is now amplified with Oman Air on board.”

Assembled in Salalah and launched in the summer of 2009, Majan is a 105ft trimaran classed as one of the fastest offshore multihulls in the world; she was given the honour of being named by HM Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.

The racing yacht took part in the Arabian Tour in 2009 with stopovers in the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Majan also crossed the Indian Ocean in the 5 Capes Race early this year with stopovers in the Maldives, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia and India before returning to Oman.

More Oman Sail News…

The same format applies to the VELUX 5 OCEANS race, which has announced the dates of the starts in the 2010/11 edition of the race. The race will start and end in the French port of La Rochelle and visit Cape Town in South Africa, Wellington in New Zealand, Salvador in Brazil and Charleston in the USA.

• Ocean Sprint 1: La Rochelle to Cape Town – 7,500 nautical miles. Start date: October 17
• Ocean Sprint 2: Cape Town to Wellington – 7,000 nautical miles. Start date: December 12
• Ocean Sprint 3: Wellington to Salvador – 7,400 nautical miles. Start date: February 6
• Ocean Sprint 4: Salvador to Charleston – 4,000 nautical miles. Start date: April 10
• Ocean Sprint 5: Charleston to La Rochelle – 3,600 nautical miles. Start date: May 14

While adding stopovers and time to the race adds cost, sponsors can activate campaigns in a wider variety of markets than a n0n-stop race.

VELUX 5 OCEANS race director David Adams said:

For sponsors, there are opportunities for international media, hospitality and promotions in some of the world’s most spectacular harbour cities. For spectators, there are more opportunities to meet the inspirational skippers at the various ports, and to watch the spectacular Sprint starts and finishes, whether ‘live’ or via the media or internet.”

“The VELUX 5 OCEANS race management team is working with our city partners to deliver high quality stopovers for skippers, providing world class services, global media coverage and reducing costs as much as possible across the board.”

More VELUX 5 OCEANS News…

One of the greatest races in the world took place in France on the weekend. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is an event that has everything – history, legend, iron-fisted management, spectators and more. Sailing event promoters could learn a lot from Le Mans, but so could yacht manufacturers. The 2010 event saw sailing sponsor Audi claim the top 3 positions on the podium – a perfect platform for the brand to launch it’s new product – the Audi A1.

The reason that Le Mans and sports car racing in general is a good model for sailing is that both prototype and production classes are eligible. For a company like Audi, the race serves not only as valuable R&D, but winning allows them to back up marketing claims.

While we would normally not welcome yet another new boat design in a crowded and overcomplicated market, it is fantastic to see a yacht that makes a direct connection between racing and cruising. Most of the mass-market yacht producers swear that the audience for their boast don’t care about racing – the new JP54 will test that claim.

French sailor, Jean-Pierre Dick, has imagined a top-of-the-range fast cruising yacht. Designed by Guillaume Verdier with the interior designed by Stéphanie Marin, the JP54 will be produced in a limited series by Absolute Dreamer.

Jean-Pierre Dick said:

“I imagined the cruising yacht of my dreams during my last two Vendée Globe races. I wanted to sail offshore and at the same time enjoy stopovers. I therefore conceived the JP54, a uniquely designed light and fast yacht, to retain the pleasure of surfing at 20 knots more comfortably than on my racing yacht. With the JP54, you can share the sensations and the pleasures of sailing with your family and friends.”

Just as Audi use Le Mans to test innovative new technology under extreme conditions, the JP54 takes ideas from Dick’s Open 60 ‘Paprec-Virbac 2′ and applies them to a production boat.

In order to optimize the performance of the JP54 and to create a new indoor living space, the boat has a ‘satellite’; a rotating carousel. This innovative concept was developed on board Paprec-Virbac 2. The satellite is a galley-chart table unit into which all the systems such as the batteries, hydraulics and storage are fitted. The loaded weight (600 kg) can be transferred windward in a few seconds just by pressing a button. It is the first time that a similar concept has been put into use on a cruising yacht. The gain is important both in terms of performance and comfort on board. The sailors are always windward when at the chart table or cooking, while the guests enjoy a large space leeward.

Jean-Pierre Dick has also called upon his single-handed race experience to make the boat more manoeuvrable. He says:

“Through the experience of single-handed sailing, I have been able to design a boat that is really simple to use.” The hydraulic winches remove the physical side to manoeuvring. In 10 minutes, all the sails are hoisted! The cockpit is uncluttered making movement easy on deck and allowing you to enjoy the sunbaths comfortably. The whole of the pit is brought back to starboard on an electric winch. There is no mainsheet rail. The JP54 can easily be manoeuvred double-handed in all circumstances.”

Vital statistics:

Photo Credit: Ivor Wilkins

Earlier in the year, Marseille hosted the World Match Racing Tour and stepped up their on-shore entertainment so that spectators could feel more involved with the sport.

Now, the Marseille Trophy, the second regatta of this season’s Audi MedCup Circuit, has opened its Public Village. If you can’t see the boats sailing, why not come down to pontoon day and see them floating in the docks? Free access to the Public Village allows visitors to really experience the heart of the regatta atmosphere at a location which is in the middle of Marseille’s historic Vieux Port. As well as interactive contests with the sailors the sailing will be on a screen thanks to the 3D Virtual Eye system.

It’s a great investment in sponsorship activation, something that should alert visitors to the city who otherwise had no idea that a sailing event was taking place to the racing.

Rather than sit at home and watch on the internet, The ‘LiveZone’ is not the name for the race-course where spectators can follow the action, instead it is a stage and big screen that visitors will be able to concerts, contests, interviews, and broadcasting live the action straight from the water.

All this is great, but the PR is stretching a bit when it has to tempt guests with offers like:

In front of the stage, the Chill Out Zone offers comfortable sofas and atomised water cooling, for the visitor to chill out while enjoying the show.

Nevertheless, the future of the sport is in good hands. Why do inflatable playgrounds need to be shaped like castles…? An inflatable TP52 is one of the attractions for kids.

More TP52 News…

The first stage of the Grand Prix Ecole Naval – the French One Design Cruiser Championship -was contested just over a week ago with four French titles settled in the J80, Open 5.70, the Corsaire and the Longtze that attracted up to 170 teams. This weekend the naval college extends a welcome to the Laser SB3 sportsboat class for its 4th Eurocup.

The larger regatta fleet is studded with highly renowned and successful sailors from the worlds of Olympic, offshore and one design racing, ensuring that once again the regatta builds its reputation as one of the keynote events on the calendar. In eight years of competition the Grand Prix has continued to grow in size and importance. This year 166 teams challenged for the nine championship titles. The Grand Prix de L’Ecole Navale also stands as Stage 2 of the Longtze European Tour 2010, and is part of the Longtze Student Cup. It will also welcome the Seascape 18 class for its first racing in France.

The Laser SB3 Eurocup attracts a large number of competitors from outside France, including a large British contingetnt. The Crozan Morgat event, held over the  Bank Holiday weekend sees an exodus to France for four days of racing has become a regatta not to be missed. A high level of organisation which ensure good racing on the water coupled with excellent local restaurants, food and wine makes the event a favourite for competitors.

From Jerry Hill, UK Class President says:

2010 will be the fourth year that the Laser SB3 fleet have chosen to come to the Ecole Navale Championship for our Eurocup event. While this was initially an enthusiastic band of UK sailors, now there are many other nationalities who travel to this beautiful part of France to sail. We come for many reasons, but we enjoy sailing in Brittany, we enjoy the food and the wine, the organisation is first class and the organisers are always happy to help and assist the sailors. If I had to choose just one event to sail in each year, this event would be top of my list.

Alain Daoulas, Grand Prix Ecole Navale Chief Commissaire, added:

The Grand Prix Ecole Navale, which was launched in 2002 has been built since the beginning around sportsboats, one design and technology. And so it is natural that in 2003 we proposed to the Laser SB3 class that they join the event. After last year we reviewed all aspects of the events with the competitors of the Eurocup so we could integrate the sport and logistics solutions that answer the specific needs of this class. Of course the Grand Prix is now one of the important sporting events on the calendar in Finistere and for the Naval College as a nautical and engineering college it is an important event which uses the dynamics and challenge of sport to foster a greater international profile. And, closer to home, it reinforces our links locally with Crozon and the Brest communities.

From Roger Hudson (2009 Eurocup Winner, South Africa)

Of the many fantastic sailing events that Team RaceAhead has competed in over the past few years, including Cork Week, Cowes Week and various National and World Championships, the Ecole Navale Championship in Brest, France has without doubt most exceeded our expectations. Beyond the high quality of racing and excellent conditions, the event’s fine organisation and the unique social programme create a rare sense of camaraderie that defines great sailing events. This event offers precisely the sort of racing experience and invaluable exposure to the wider world that the RaceAhead project aims to provide for young African sailors.

More information can be found at the event website…

Last week in Eric Tabarly’s Cité de la Voile, Groupama revealed more reasons behind their commitment to the next two editions of the VOR. In short, the race is an excellent opportunity for the European insurance and banking group to display its international ambition and for Franck Cammas and his team to vie with the top Anglo-Saxon crews.

Frédérique Granado, Groupama’s director of external communications commented last week:

“When we committed ourselves to supporting Franck Cammas back in 1998, he was a young sports entrepreneur, who was just discovering the multihull scene. Twelve years on, he has won virtually all the crewed races and racked up no less than six records, including the legendary Jules Verne Trophy on 20th March 2010. By confirming our commitment to the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, namely until 2015, we are supporting the Group’s international development, which makes 30% of its turnover overseas and employs over 11,000 employees outside France. Groupama is today identified as the leading vessel owner in French sailing. With the Volvo Ocean Race, this presence will further develop overseas.”

The Groupama team, headed by Franck Cammas is made up of 45 people and despite the team’s roots it is fairly commonplace to hear English spoken or perhaps French with a slightly exotic accent:

Franck says:

“The challenge we’ve committed ourselves to is a sizeable one. Since 1993 and Eric Tabarly, not a single French team has participated in the Volvo Ocean Race. Up against the top crews from New Zealand, America, Spain and Ireland, it’s going to be an intense battle. We’re just rediscovering the monohull and we still have a lot to learn. However, we’re going about it with as much enthusiasm, seriousness and humility as possible. Thanks to Groupama’s commitment, we were the first to put our team together. Making up my entourage are Volvo specialists like Damian Foxall, Ben Wright, Luc Gellusseau, Hervé Le Quilliec as well as Killian Bush, who are joining together with various long-term stalwarts of the Groupama Team like Stéphane Guilbaud, Pierre Tissier, Loïc Dorez, Yann Riou and Olivier Mainguy.”

With the purchase of Ericsson 4, winner of the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, Groupama Team can boast an excellent platform for training and analysis. Rechristened Groupama 70, the Koujoumdjian design is performing an increasing number of sail trials offshore of Lorient in Brittany, where the Team is based.

When the team aren’t out sailing, the various members of the Team are participating in the design of the future boat, it too due to be designed by the Franco-Argentine architect:

Cammas added:

‘Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to involve the excellent French architects in the work, as they are also only just discovering the restrictions of the class measurement linked to these 70 foot (21.5 metres long) boats. As such we opted for Juan Koujoumdjian, who is based in Valencia, Spain. However, it’s actually in nearby Vannes, at the Multiplast yard, that Groupama 4 will be built. This will represent 40,000 man hours and we know the team well because we built the maxi trimaran Groupama 3 with them.’

The new boat will be built by Multiplast, the company that built the Groupama III maxi trimaran in 2005-2006. The Groupama Team has renewed its confidence in Multiplast and entrusted the yard with the production of this monohull, based on the plans by Juan Yacht Design.

Yann Penfornis, General Manager of Multiplast said:

“This new order is wonderful recognition of our know-how. We are all the more proud in that the team in question is particularly demanding of themselves, and also of any of the partners involved in the project. For us, this boat will be an opportunity to compare our work with that of the large foreign teams, who have dominated this discipline for many years.”

Pierre Tissier, Construction Manager for Team Groupama said about the close collaboration with the boat-builder:

“We have been working with Multiplast for several years, we know each other very well and we communicate openly. We know that we can trust them again to build a reliable, high-performance boat.”

Dominique Dubois, President of Multiplast commented about the strict measurement rules :

“This new boat must be a marvel. In addition, we have had to make new investments, such as an anti-dust paint for the flooring and new curing ovens to guarantee that Groupama will benefit from a new quality close to the demands of the aeronautical or space industry. This is another new step taken by the Multiplast boatyard with regards to quality control. Our experience in the production of parts for the aeronautical industry will be useful to us to take on this new challenge.”

ALL4ONE? squad was established originally by Stéphane Kandler and Jochen Schümann in September of 2009. Other German sponsors include Adidas. The Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE boat will not only contest the five regattas of the Audi MedCup between May and September but also the TP52 World Championships in Sicily in October.

Lothar Korn, AUDI AG Head of Marketing Communications said:

“We’ve been partnering with the Audi MedCup for several years now and are equally thrilled with the top-caliber sporting competition and the possibilities for presentations on water and along the coast? The additional support of the Franco-German boat now provides us with close links to the team and enables us to offer our guests and customers an unforgettable sporting experience?.

The TP52 represents the Kieler Yacht Club (GER) and the Cercle de la Voile de Paris (FRA) and is currently located at its home yacht harbor in Valencia. From there, the yacht will be taken directly to the Audi MedCup season opener to be staged in Cascais (Portugal) from May 11 to 16.

Audi MedCup Circuit Director, Ignacio Triay said:

“This is great news for the Circuit, not just because we see an increase in terms of entries, but also because of the rise in quality of team competitiveness. Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE means the first French team in the history of the Audi MedCup, and the combination of Jochen Schümann and Stéphane Kandler promises to prove tough competition for the other 10 teams.”

In 2009, the Marseille International Match Race was staged at the Yacht Club Point Rouge. It was an understated event with little infrastructure for spectators or media. The event did attract the attention of the local newspapers and visits from school groups, but otherwise there was no real reaching out to fans.

In 2010, Match Race France will offer a big screen television for spectators to keep track of the action live.

For those who can’t make it to Marseille, the WMRT has enlisted the services of writer Mark Chisnell to provide a live blogging service using the popular ‘Coveritlive’ platform. Coveritlive has some nice features that allows the person typing to concentrate on updates and allows a ‘producer’ to moderate comments and insert other information into the stream. There is Twitter integration built in and media including photos, audio and video can also be added.

When last we used it, Coveritlive was free, and can be ‘plugged-in’ to almost any website without too much technical ability. Something to think about for other events around the world.

Thursday saw the introduction of a new live tracker service. The service is in it’s infancy, but has some good potential. The user experience needs a little bit of thinking. To get the coverage to work you need to download a proprietory player that includes a bunch of Microsoft C++ libraries. From there, you need to click a little link on the webpage that you download the player from. The player was set up with the boat’s sponsors as the only identification, which is great for the sponsors, but doesn’t help a fan who can’t see who is in which boat.

Trackers are going to be big in all sports, but sailing in particular lends itself to being followed in this manner. There are several companies that are building competing solutions. TCReplay is provided by French company KaliBee. KaliBee CEO, Emmanuel de Bressy said

With virtual 3D graphics, we really are into the race, we can change camera, change angles to make sense, focus on the one on one competition which is the spice of Match Racing. As we are in a numerical world, we can display and quantify gaps, calculate times, look at the figures lie speed or course, run intermediary ranking lists… The aim is to explain the game for the non specialists.

Like every sport driven by rules, the game must be explained. Look at rugby, for example, the rules are many, not always easy to understand but the public enjoy it.  At KaliBee we are offering the tools to understand and broadcast our sport on a race village and on the internet to the spectator !”

Sailing fans are not easy to please though. Last year there was no coverage of this event except for some Twitter updates by Mirsky Racing Team and the end of day press releases. This year, despite the live blog and the tracking, online fans are asking why the event is not streamed?

There is video though. Daily highlight videos are being produced quickly and uploaded to SailTV and YouTube.

Rebuilding the World Match Racing Tour, growing awareness and creating a world recognised sailing entertainment product will take time. Events will need to run at the same time in the same place year after year to attract spectators on the ground. Some, like Match Cup Sweden and the Monsoon Cup, are already there. Others, like Match Cup France will need a bit more work and a lot more time.

Links:

• Live Blog – Written by Mark Chisnell
• 3D Tracking
• SailTV WMRT Channel
• Official World Match Racing Tour Twitter Stream.