If the world governing body is going to influence and grow the professional side of the sport, it needs to attract experienced commercial operators that understand the realities of the industry. Sewell has delivered programmes that include some of Cowes Week’s most successful years with Skandia as title sponsor. Sewell has also been involved with the Olympic classes through Skandia Team GBR.

It sounds like he will be busy though. In a statement released by ISAF, Tim’s role at the Secretariat is to oversee the work of Marketing and Media, Events and Training and Development. As if marketing, media and events was not a large enough portfolio on it’s own!

Tim said:

“This is a great opportunity for me. I am really looking forward to my new role, being able to help the sport grow and ultimately put something back into the sport I enjoy so much.”

We look forward to talking to Tim in coming weeks. . .

More appointments…

Australia’s Golden Boys, Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page, are a traveling billboard for Audi. By the time this year’s ISAF World Cup circuit comes to a close in Weymouth at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue, they will have hoisted their spinnaker, which is emblazoned with the Audi rings in Australia, USA, France, Spain, Holland, Germany and the UK. Last week they were in Holland, not far from the frigid North Sea and next week they will be in Germany, the home of Audi.

While the Audi rings bear some resemblance to the Olympic rings, Olympian Malcolm Page says, with a straight face, that seeing them billow out in front of him every time the spinnaker is launched “makes me think about the amazing drive I have experienced in the Audi. It also makes me want to get to the finish line quicker so that I can get into the car and warm up. In Holland the seat warmers are a necessity and bring us back to life after a cold day on the water.”

Page has the privilege of driving an A4 in Australia and the Belcher & Page London Challenge 2012 Men’s 470 Olympic sailing campaign has been traveling throughout Europe this season in an Audi Q7. Says Page of the Q7; “It’s a life saver for the four months that we are in Europe this year. The larger car allows us to cart our ‘lives’ from country to country, and the single best thing about the Q7 is its ability to tow the coach boat and our two 470′s around Europe. The ride is so smooth that we don’t realize that all of our equipment is attached to or on top of the car.”

Belcher and Page estimate that they will only drive about 8,000 kilometers throughout Europe in 2010 because their regattas are relatively close together this year. During the remainder of the year, when they are home in Australia, both sailors will put nearly 25,000 kilometers on their A4′s. “They are a work of art, not just a motor vehicle,” says Page. “They seem to have the best balance between style and performance.”

Speaking for his teammates, Page continues, “We feel very privileged to have the support of Audi. We are trying to achieve the same standards of excellence in our campaign that Audi has attained with its cars. They have developed reliable, industry-leading equipment that is attractive… although looking good is a little bit beyond our control.”

Arriving in Marseille, France in our lovely Q7 3.0TDI. Photo taken by Victor Kovalenko

The Belcher & Page London Challenge 2012 campaign is sponsored in part by AUDI, Acuity, Estate Master Sailing, Sands Resorts, Australian Sailing Team, Australian Institute of Sport, Austin Brothers, Professional Investment Services, Ronstan and generous employers, family and friends. Join the Challenge contact them at http://www.belcherpage2012.com/

More Audi Sailing News…

The battle for the 2010 World Championship begins almost as soon as the New Year gets underway, with the 49er World Championship kicking off in Freeport, The Bahamas on 2 January. Next up the illustrious names of the Star class are set to do battle at the world famous Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club in Brazil. There is then an extended break with the next World title battles arriving with the start of the European summer sailing season. July brings with it the 470 Worlds in The Netherlands and the Laser Radial Worlds in Great Britain. Following on in August/September are the Laser Worlds in Great Britain, the Finn Gold Cup in the USA and the RS:X Worlds in Denmark. The World Championship season draws to a close with the ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship at Newport, Rhode Island in the USA.

• 2-9 January 2010 Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance 49er World Championship Freeport Bahamas
• 12-23 January 2010 Men’s Keelboat Star World Championship Rio de Janeiro Brazil
• 6-14 July 2010 Women’s One Person Dinghy Laser Radial Women’s World Championship Largs Great Britain
• 9-18 July 2010 Men’s Two Person Dinghy / Women’s Two Person Dinghy 470 World Championship The Hague The Netherlands
• 27 August-4 September 2010 Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy Finn Gold Cup San Francisco USA
• 27 August-5 September 2010 Men’s One Person / Dinghy Laser World Standard Senior Championship Hayling Island Great Britain
• 28 August-5 September 2010 Men’s Windsurfer Women’s Windsurfer RS:X World Championship Kerteminde Denmark
• 20-25 September 2010 Women’s Keelboat Match Racing ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship Newport, Rhode Island USA

Premium will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead. In line with our Strategy Number ONE, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability.

Many people claim that sailing is a ‘greener’ alternative as a sponsorship platform than other sports. While this is obviously true when the comparison is motorsport or offshore powerboats, there are sports like triathlon or golf which can legitmately promote environmental credentials. While the fuel for sailing might come from the wind, sailors and their support teams fly to their events and some of the materials used in the construction of boats are not quite as sustainable as we would wish.

Perhaps then, we will see more deals like that done between the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and Carbon Conscious, a supplier of carbon offsets. In fact, Carbon Conscious will be the “exclusive supplier of carbon offsets” to the championship.

Director Commercial Operations for the event, Darren Beazley said Perth 2011 was thrilled to be consolidating international sailing’s reputation as being environmentally conscious and green friendly through its partnership.

“The sport of sailing is extremely proud of its reputation internally as an environmentally responsible sport. Carbon Conscious Ltd will work with Perth 2011 to offset our ‘carbon foot print’ before and during the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and help us establish the Perth 2011 Forest as a primary means to reduce our footprint. The Perth 2011 Forest will see Mallee Eucalypts planted in the WA wheatbelt to offset emissions generated from the Event to allow for Perth 2011′s carbon emissions to have a minimal effect on the environment.”

Carbon Conscious Ltd Chief Executive Officer Peter Balsarini said Carbon Conscious Ltd was proud to be working with the Perth 2011 team:

“From our earliest discussions it was apparent that the Perth 2011 team felt very strongly about mitigating the effects of climate change on the iconic Western Australian coastline. We expect this to be a rewarding long-term partnership between Carbon Conscious Ltd and Perth 2011 and anticipate many thousands of trees to be planted in the Perth 2011 Forest as a result. Over the duration of the Perth 2011 campaign we will work closely with the event organisers, local, national and international businesses, competitors and the general public to put in place a number of carbon reduction and offset strategies to make the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships a Carbon Conscious event.

During 2009 more than 60 major international sports events are taking place all over Denmark, culminating in the IOC Olympic Session and the Olympic Congress at the beginning of October. The World Taekwondo Championships, the UEFA Congress, the World Wrestling Championships and the LEN Congress are also among the many events taking place in Denmark this summer. The Year of Sport is part of a national effort to realise a vision of the Danish Government: to place Denmark firmly as one of Europe’s leading hosts of major international sports events and congresses.

On the sailing side, Year of Sport 2009 ‘Inviting the World of Sports’ includes

• The Finn Gold Cup, the annual World Championship for the Olympic heavyweight men’s singlehanded dinghy, where Patron of the event is H.R.H. Crown Prince Frederik.
• The European championship for the Women’s Olympic singlehander, the Laser Radial.
• The EUROSAF Open European and Women’s European Match Racing Championships.
• The Danish Open Match Racing as part of the World Match Racing Tour.
• The 470 World Championship
• The Contender Class World Championship
• The International Moth European championship.

Dan Ibsen, Secretary General of the Danish Sailing Association.

“We are very proud to welcome sailors to Denmark, especially this year, because with the International Olympic Committee conference being held in Denmark, this is why we have worked hard to get as many international events to Denmark in order to promote sailing. “We have never had so many world and European championships for the Olympic disciplines in Denmark in one single year. So it is a very exciting year for us and we hope everyone will enjoy the racing and have a good summer in Denmark.”

Dan Ibsen points out the advantages of holding regattas in Denmark.

“We love sailing in Denmark, and Sailing has a very high profile among all sports, especially Olympic Sailing. We are good and efficient organisers, with strong support from Communities and Sport Event Denmark. We have sheltered waters and we haven’t got very much current in most of our waters. There’s also normally sufficient wind and wind of different types, so it makes regattas challenging over a week, because you don’t have the same weather every day.”

The Danish Sailing Association is also working with the support of the insurance company CODAN (part of Sun Alliance Group), to provide TracTrac tracking during the Finn Gold Cup, Laser Radial Europeans, EUROSAF Match Racing Europeans and 470 World Championship. The Danish Sailing Association has gone to the length of purchasing 150 state of the art GPS tracking devices, allowing races to be followed in real time over the internet. Last year the TracTrac tracking of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark was followed by nearly 30,000 viewers from 69 countries all over the world.

The Danish Sailing Association has also contracted the services of Sailing Intelligence, the UK-based media services company to provide expert race reporting at these same four key events this year.

Sandra GREER, Consultant, IFM Sports Marketing Surveys said,

“We have seen an increase in rights holders conducting comprehensive valuations for their properties in the last year and this has proven effective in showing potential sponsors a full audit of contractual benefits and the value attached to them. We are proud to be working with ISAF and its partner events to provide a full valuation for the title sponsorship for the new ISAF World Cup. Our work will involve analysing extensive information from all the events as well as conducting market research amongst sailing fans to establish the true value of the property from both a media and impact perspective”.

Consisting of seven of the world’s top sailing competitions that feature the Olympic events, the inaugural ISAF Sailing World Cup launched at the end of 2008 at Sail Melbourne, Australia. Having moved on to Miami, USA in January, the series continues to five events across Europe finishing this September in Weymouth, Great Britain at the venue of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Jerome PELS, ISAF Secretary General, said:

“The ISAF Sailing World Cup has brought together the current top sailing events for the classes in the Olympic Sailing Competition. Each event is already valuable in its own right, but as a series together it’s a superb platform for sailors, the media and of course the sponsors. ISAF is seeking a title sponsor for 2010 onwards and our work with IFM Sports Marketing Surveys will ensure we have all the information to present an accurate proposition to the market.”

To some, the idea of the governing body entering the sponsorship space might seem a little scary, but if done right, the sport as a whole should benefit. Certainly any move that reduces ISAF’s reliance on revenue from the international Olympic Commitee has to be a good thing, allowing the sport to control it’s own destiny rather than be dicated to by outside interests. Some careful planning and a willingness to be flexible will be required to make sure that conflicts are avoided.

Described, perhaps unfairly as ‘sailing’s equivalent to a motor racing Grand Prix or tennis Grand Slam’, the Melbourne event begins the inaugural ISAF Sailing World Cup. Seven regattas will be held around the world in Olympic classes, giving professional sailors the ability to compete annually and deliver commercial results for sponsors.

It is only fitting that as Australia tops the national standings in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings yet again, that an event of this magnitude begins in Melbourne.

Australian head coach Victor KOVALENKO is the inaugural Sail Melbourne ambassador and will be wandering the boat park helping out sailors as required.

This event is compulsory for Australian Sailing Team development squad members and is the highlight event on the Victoria Sailing Calendar.

The first event of the ISAF Sailing World Cup will be held at Sandringham Yacht Club from 16-21 December.

The ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009 consists of the following events:

• 16-21 Dec 2008 – Sail Melbourne The Asia Pacific Regatta, Melbourne, Australia
• 25-31 Jan 2009 – Rolex Miami OCR, Miami, USA
• 4-10 April 2009 – Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain
• 18-24 April 2009 – Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France
• 27-31 May 2009 – Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, Netherlands
• 20-28 June 2009 – Kieler Woche, Kiel, Germany
• 14-19 Sept 2009 – Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, Weymouth, Great Britain

Find out more about the ISAF Sailing World Cup, including more on the seven events, the scoring system and the Notice of Series at www.sailing.org/isafsailingworldcup.