Savvy sailing sponsors know that return on invesment (ROI) for sailing can be increased by using the asset – the boat – for as many days in as many events as possible. Multiple boats, with different capabilities allows you to spread your sponsorship across multiple territories and different audiences.

The concept of the sailing ‘Superteam’ has been emerging for a few years now, partly because of insecurity surrounding the America’s Cup, but also because sports marketing people have recognised the benefits of multiple platforms. Teams like Emirates Team NZ and Groupama compete with multiple boats in multiple competitions and gain huge value as a result.

Over the last couple of years, Oman Sail has been steadily building into a real force in sailing. The most recent example of the team’s success has been a demolition of the Round Britain and Ireland record by Sidney Gavignet (FRA) onboard OMAN AIR MAJAN.  The A100 trimaran broke the existing record held by Thomas Coville by a massive 1 day 15 hours 30 minutes and 44 seconds.

This incredible achievement also means Sidney has beaten the existing fully crewed record time by 1 hour and 7 seconds. This record was set by Steve Fosset onboard Playstation in 2002.

Philippe Georgiou, Chief Officer, Corporate Affairs, Oman Air, the sponsors of the boat said:

“As part of Oman’s Air sponsorship of Oman Sail at the Route du Rhum, the iconic sail regatta which will take place at the end of October, we are excited to be witnessing that all the preparatory stages in the run-up to the race get under way. Following the display of the 100-meter Arabian Trimaran Oman Air during Cowes Week at the Isle of Wight, world famous skipper Sydney Gavignet now readies himself for the single-handed Round Britain and Ireland raid and his attempt to break yet another record. We at Oman Air are both proud and thrilled to be part of the Route du Rhum, this very special event which offers us a great opportunity to promote our airline offering and its unique destination, the Sultanate of Oman.”

Oman Air Majan is built by BoatSpeed.

Image Credit: Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

More Sailing Record News…

While some in the sailing world have grumbled about Jessica Watson’s record attempt, the young Australian has managed to do something that no other professional sailor has managed for a long time – become a household name.

While the Defender of the America’s Cup trials monohulls against catamarans and mounts cameras at funny angles to try and make sailing more exciting. The public don’t care. The general public want stories about people. If sailing really wants to become a mass-market sport, then it will have to create rock-stars. Not technically brilliant athletes who scurry away from the media or begrudgingly do a piece to camera for the benefit of their sponsors. Sailing needs the top people in the sport to be larger than life, PR savvy, merchandising machines.

No doubt there will be some who find this kind of commercialism a sad sell-out, but in order to survive sailing needs a Tiger Woods or a Venus Williams or a Lewis Hamilton and it can be done.

Perhaps it takes more aggressive PR to punch through to the mass-media. Take this statement that appeared on the web yesterday:

No. 1 sailor Jessica Watson has become a No. 1 author this week, when Hachette Australia announced that the teenage sailor’s memoir of her recent voyage had become the biggest selling book in Australia.

Number 1 sailor? By what measure? In a week when Australian sailors picked up gold medals in four classes at the pre-Olympic Sail for Gold regatta,  no-one talking about Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price in the Women’s Match Racing, the Skud-18, won by Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox, Tom Slingsby’s gold in the Laser Men or Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen who took gold the 49er class.

We’re not attributing the statement above to Jessica or her team, but a certain percentage of people who know no better will believe it. In other words, its not the best sailors who win the battle for hearts and minds but the best salespeople.

According to the publishers, Australians purchased more than 10,000 copies of Jessica Watson’s book True Spirit in 10 days. The latest Nielsen BookScan, based on data from 1000 retailers nationwide, shows True Spirit at No.1 for the week ending August 7.

Perhaps the Defender of the America’s Cup is going down the wrong path. Perhaps sailing doesn’t need to be more exciting – it needs to be more interesting. Sailors, not their boats need to be more interesting. There is an opportunity for an athlete in the sport who is willing to be famous to step forwards and become a rock-star. If Jessica Watson can do it, then so can others.

More Jessica Watson News..

AMEinfo.com reports that Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, is happy with its sponsorship of the Oman Sail project after visiting the Cowes Week. The company has declared the first phase of its sponsorship of the 105-foot racing multihull, Majan, a huge success.

The trimaran had an unmistakable presence at the prestigious yachting event and provided a major talking point as VIP guests and media were shown the boat’s power on the Solent.

Oman Air’s Chief Officer, Corporate Affairs, Philippe Georgiou, who was one of the first to join Sidney on the yacht after she arrived in Cowes, said:

“Majan’s visit to Cowes Week was the first phase of the airline’s sponsorship of this remarkable vessel. She is an imposing yacht and attracted a great deal of attention and admiration as she sailed through the waters off the Isle of Wight. Vitally, the yacht also raised awareness within one of our key markets of Oman Air as an airline that combines tradition with innovation and luxury with value. Majan’s presence at Cowes Week was a powerful one and gave us the opportunity to engage with a large number of opinion-formers and potential visitors to the Sultanate.”

Oman Air’s sponsorship of Majan aims not only to raise awareness of the airline, but also to support Oman Sail in its important work of revitalising Oman’s maritime tradition, celebrating Omani seamanship and increasing participation in sports sailing within the Sultanate. Earlier this year, Oman Air sponsored Jewel of Muscat, a re-creation of a 9th Century Arab Dhow which was hand-built in Oman before being sailed to Singapore and being presented to the country’s President as a gift to the nation.

Majan sailed into Cowes on 31st July with a full – largely Omani – crew and with her three hulls displaying Oman Air’s distinctive branding. During Majan’s stay in Cowes, her skipper, world record holder Sidney Gavignet, welcomed aboard a number of VIPs, including His Highness Sayyid Tariq bin Shabib Al Said and Ahmad Al Harthy, the leading Omani racing driver, who brought his Oman Air-branded Porsche to the quayside.

Philippe Georgiou concluded,

“Following the success of Majan’s visit to Cowes, we are looking forward to the next phase of our sponsorship of Majan. This will see her sail into St Malo, in Northern France, to prepare for one of the greatest challenges any racing yacht can face – La Route Du Rhum. This single-handed transatlantic race will see Majan sail from St Malo to Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, and it will be with a sense of enormous pride that we follow skipper Sidney Gavignet’s progress as he sails under Oman Air’s colours. We look forward to joining Sidney at St Malo in October and we wish him every success in La Route Du Rhum.”

Given the increase in sponsorship of sailing by national tourism offices, it is perhaps surprising that more airlines are not involved in the sport. The most visible airline sponsorship is Emirates backing of Team New Zealand, but other national carriers have not visibly supported nationally backed tourism based event deals.

More Middle East Sailing Business News…

Record attempts are risky sponsorship vehicles, however – if the record is broken then the rewards can be enormous. There are other advantages of sponsoring a record attempt over a more traditional race. In the case of sailing, there is usually only one boat competing, which gives the sponsor a larger share of voice. Only one boat for the cameras to capture, only one story rather than many.

Steve White has announced his intention to break the current world record for circumnavigating single-handed, non-stop the ‘wrong way’, against the prevailing winds and currents. Steve plans to buy and sail a Volvo Open 70, which would usually be crewed by ten people.

Steve says:

‘After the amazing experience of the 2008 Vendée Globe, it seemed like the right time to focus my attention on this record that I have been thinking about for a long time, and which fits in nicely before the next Vendée Globe in 2012. The record is acknowledged as probably the hardest and certainly the most gruelling record in sailing, and I am under no illusions about the enormity of the task in hand, both of sailing upwind and against the current in the Southern Ocean, and about the power and size of the boat we have chosen. Jean-Luc Van Den Heede is a legend and his record will be tough to beat, but I think it is achievable’

Taking place this winter, the attempt would mark the 40th anniversary of the original record set by Sir Chay Blyth (CBE BEM) on ‘British Steel’, who embarked on the epic journey described by The Times in 1970 as the ‘Impossible Voyage’. The current record for completing the 22,000 mile course is 122 days, 14 hours and 4 minutes, and is held by Frenchman Jean Luc Van Den Heede.

Sir Chay Blyth CBE, BEM commented:

‘It’s wonderful that Steve is planning to attempt what many regard as the ultimate sailing challenge. Hundreds have completed the voyage following the classic Eastabout route but doing this in reverse is a quantum leap removed, which is why only 5 people including Mike Golding and Dee Caffari have tried it. It takes a special character to tackle the trip and Steve is an extremely experienced yachtsman who I believe has the right skills, tenacity and determination to set a new World record.’ When asked if he would be tempted back to re-trace his footsteps Chay said, ‘Not a hope in hell.’

Steve is quoted as looking for a budget for buying the boat, preparing it, support and sponsor activation of £1.4 million. It’s a big bet to take on success of the endeavour and will be tough to find before the weather window of October or November.

Steve added:

‘I have long pondered this record since reading both Chay’s and Mike Golding’s books on their respective attempts. With a very successful Vendée Globe behind me, and a team with a wealth of experience now in place, I am confident I can do this record justice. I really am more excited about this than I have been about anything else, and I am very much looking forward to crossing the start line. I will leave between October and December this year, depending on the arrival of a suitable weather window, and how soon we attract a sponsor’.

More Record Attempt News…

A couple of weeks back, Cam Lewis was in Rome, greeting the world’s press as the friendly face of the new America’s Cup. His love of multihulls is well known, but now the multiple circumnavigator, world champion dingy sailor and America’s Cup veteran has announced his involvement in the SpeedDream project as skipper.

Cam is often considered a multihull sailor because his most spectacular victories happened aboard catamarans – he was a key crewmember on board Dennis Connor’s victorious Stars and Stripes catamaran during the 1988 America’s Cup. Cam was the only American aboard the Commodore Explorer, the catamaran that in 1993 broke the mythical 80-day around-the-world record to become the first holder of the coveted Trophée Jules Verne. In The Race, the ultimate around-the-world sailing competition among unrestricted multihulls that took place in 2000, Cam Lewis’ 110 ft catamaran Team Adventure was arguably the fastest boat in the fleet and only serious damages pushed his team into third place.

He says:

“My mantra in life is to sail fast boats fast, in any waters, as often as possible. As it happened multihulls have for decades dominated high performance ocean sailing but when I was first introduced to the SpeedDream project I instantly saw the huge potential of its design concept. For me, the SpeedDream challenge is not only an attempt to prove that monohulls can compete on an even keel with multihulls. It is rather an alternative way of sailing faster, of pushing the boundaries of performance ever higher.

Reaching 40 knots on a catamaran in the middle of the ocean was an intense and unforgettable experience. To sail at 40+ knots on a monohull would be absolutely awesome. I simply cannot miss the chance to take part in this extraordinary adventure.”

Cam Lewis will play an active role in helping develop the practical aspects of SpeedDream working the designers and engineers to create an on-deck and below-deck environment that is safe and practical for the crew in all conditions.

“The SpeedDream project is all about speed, innovation and going places as fast as possible and doing it in the most efficient way, with minimal impact on the environment. I am thrilled to be named the captain of SpeedDream and will do all I can to help Vlad Murnikov and his team to fulfill this fantastic dream.”

On Saturday, Australian teenager Jessica Watson sailed into Sydney Harbour to complete an amazing journey. The 16 year old has spent 7 months sailing around the world, on her own, without stopping. The voyage will have a huge impact on the way sailing is regarded and also has big implications for the sponsorship of sailing activities. This is not about old men like the America’s Cup, this is about character.

Jessica’s story is not about sailing, not really. The reason that her arrival back in Australia received live television coverage and was reported in media that would never normally carry a sailing story, is that it is a human interest tale of achievement. It is the story of an individual who set out to accomplish a dream and succeeded.

The stories in media outlets like New Idea, 60 Minutues and ‘Stock & Land’ will not mention sail area or hull displacement. This story will now be turned into a ‘battler overcomes all odds’ tale, even by those who said she would never make it.

Amongst the flag waving (because there is a large nationalistic element involved) there is controversy, but the sailing world needs to sit back and listen to the public. This is an opportunity to understand what it is that allows sailing to jump out of the small niche media and appeal to a mass-market.

And it’s not a revelation. Those involved with the elite end of solo-offshore racing know that the human story is the essential element to capture the imagination of an audience who are not interested in the machine. This is an important reminder. Too often, the sport of sailing is reduced to the names of the tools. Take this example from an article about this weekend’s Audi Med Cup:

“Through the five events of the 2010 Audi MedCup season, regatta trophies are a bonus, and this is Emirates Team New Zealand’s fifth successive regatta title in a row, but the dominant Kiwi crew will be even more content to leave Portugal with a comprehensive lead of 20 points over Franco-German Circuit newcomers AudiA1 powered by All4ONE.”

While the bean-counters at Emirates Airlines and Audi will be happy with the association of their brand with a high-end event, there is nothing in this statement for a fan to get excited. One TP52 boat beat another TP52 boat. They might as well have been sailed by remote control. Here’s another one from the  RORC De Guigand Bowl:

By the time Apollo had reached St.Catherine’s Point, they had caught up the entire fleet and crossed ahead of rival TP 52, John Merricks II.

I disagree with those who say that sailing needs to be dumbed down to appeal to a wider audience. Sports like American Football are complicated, yet still attract huge numbers of spectators. Instead, sailing needs to do more to create ‘rock-stars’ out of the men and women who are competing. Boats don’t sail themselves, just as Formula 1 cars don’t drive themselves.

Jessica Watson deserves to benefit from any commercial deals that arise as a result of her adventure. With a bit of luck, sailing may also benefit from people who are inspired by her actions to get out on the water. Those who seek to promote the sport to the widest possible audience need to take note.

The recent America’s Cup has shown what can be achieved in technology terms when you start with a blank sheet of paper. While the sporting credentials of such an event can be questioned, there is a place for unconstrained development and innovation. There are plenty of box rules and one designs for people to race against each other, but real breakthroughs come from projects like the SpeedDream.

What if you ask the question – is it always the case that a multi-hull will be faster? A kiteboard is not a multi-hull, so why shouldn’t speed records be attempted in monohull craft?

The following is an interesting read from the team that are pushing the boundaries of the way we think about sailing.

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In this News Release the SpeedDream team lifts (only slightly) the veil surrounding their revolutionary design concept and shares some ideas on how they plan to advance monohull performance to a totally new level. “We want the sailing public to be aware of our campaign and to get involved in the SpeedDream challenge with their ideas, comments and support,” says design coordinator Vlad Murnikov.

“We do, however, have to be careful about how much information we can let out on this very early stage of the project. This News Release should be viewed with the understanding that our team has many more tricks up our sleeves which we will keep there for a time being.

We will continue to work tirelessly on improving our radical SpeedDream concept until it evolves into the most extraordinary speed machine ever. And we will continue sharing our progress with you every step of the way.”

The SpeedDream campaign, the quest to create the world’s fastest monohull, is gaining momentum. The reaction to the SpeedDream announcement in early January was overwhelmingly positive demonstrating that the sailing world is ready for a radical super-fast monohull, capable of competing on equal terms with the record-setting multihulls.

“If everything comes together as anticipated our revolutionary boat will be capable of reaching and maintaining unprecedented openocean speeds,” says project leader Vlad Murnikov. Murnikov is confident that many new records will be set in open ocean conditions including the fastest transatlantic crossing as well as the fastest nonstop global circumnavigation.”

Why a monohull?

“For decades catamarans and trimarans have proven themselves to be the fastest boats under sail,” says Murnikov. “All this time these multihulls have enjoyed unrestricted development leaving their designers free to explore every possible recipe for speed. Monohull development, on the other hand, has always been governed by strict class rules which puts a big damper on single-hull performance capabilities.”

Today’s fastest monohull, the VOR 70, is a relatively conservative design developed in accordance with a stringent ‘box’ rule in order to keep all boats similar and to reduce costs, and risks, associated with the ultimate ocean race. These rules put limits on length, beam, draft, displacement, rig dimensions, and sail area, all the major design parameters, as well as materials that can be used for boat’s construction. And yet, despite all these restrictions, VOR 70s are capable of reaching speeds in excess of 40 knots, the same as some of the fastest multihulls. The problem is, much wider and shorter monohulls tend to slow down after each burst of speed, while catamarans and trimarans, with their needle-like hull forms, can sustain higher speeds for a substantially longer periods of time. This explains why multihulls dominate the record pages.

The SpeedDream team believes, however, that the current superior multihull performance could be matched and even exceeded by a monohull if we are able to throw away all restrictions and design the most advanced boat possible.

“After all multihulls, no matter how long and slender, still sail in displacement mode while high-speed monohulls can glide over the water in a much more efficient planing mode,” explains Murnikov. “We see potential for a quantum leap forward in monohull performance, a true design revolution. While this is happening catamarans and trimarans would continue their incremental advancement becoming larger and wider while growing more complex and costly.”

Generally, light boats are fast. Monohull critics are quick to point out that the ballast weight that a traditional single-hull boat has to carry in order to achieve sufficient stability is dead weight most of the time. Recent advancements in canting keel design allow for enormous gains in stability while reducing ballast weight. In fact you can hardly call a canting keel a “keel”. It’s more accurately a ‘stability strut’ that adds power in a very efficient and effective manner. It’s true that multihulls don’t need ballast for generating righting moment but they do have to carry around the weight of at least one or even two extra hulls, plus all the complex structure necessary to keep it all together.

“Advancements in modern technology and design make it possible to produce a monohull with a comparable weight and righting moment of a multihull while taking full advantage of the drag reduction of a high-speed planing hull,” says Murnikov. “Our preliminary estimates show that the SpeedDream concept would result in a monohull capable of reaching speed in excess of 50 knots and maintaining an average speed on par with the fastest multihulls.

Creating the world’s fastest monohull questions the status quo and shatters existing stereotypes of high performance sailing, while adding a new level of excitement to the never-ending quest for speed.”

When SpeedDream is built, the boat will effect the sailing community in more profound ways than any speed-record multihull could ever do simply because the vast majority of sailboats on water are monohulls. The design innovation and research that will go into this project, and the experience gained from it, will benefit the future of sailboat design and set the direction for generations of yachts to come.

A Slender Hull that Sails through the Waves High performance results from a combination of two main factors: providing a boat with enough power and reducing resistance in order to utilize this power in the most efficient way possible. Most designers focus performance optimization on increasing power.

Multihulls are typical of this approach as they grow larger and wider with each new generation in order to achieve higher and higher sailcarrying capability. This, however, results in over-powered vessels that are inevitably over-stressed requiring a more and more robust structure to survive. This all comes at the expense of extra weight which in turn calls for even more power to maintain speed.

“Our solution is to reduce drag, by all means possible,” says Vlad Murnikov. “This way all the available wind power is used more efficiently requiring less sail area to achieve higher speeds. Less righting moment is needed, the boat is less stressed and will be lighter while remaining strong. Lighter means faster”.

To greatly reduce resistance the SpeedDream boat features a relatively narrow, slender hull, almost triangular in plan view and equipped with a sharp wave-piercing bow. The goal is to reduce drag in heavy seas as well as minimize pitching and slamming.

The boat is designed to sail most of time at a constant heel angle of around 20-25 degrees. This angle of heel will be maintained by adjusting sail area and keel angle in accordance to the changes in wind strength. Both the hull and rig are optimized to be most efficient in such conditions with the hull having two narrow planing surfaces port and starboard, each tilted at 20-25 degrees. Further design development will concentrate on verifying the optimal heel angle and determining both the shape and width of the planing surfaces in order to achieve the best combination of maximum hydrodynamic lift and minimal hull drag. The resulting hull design will have minimal volume and surface area with its buoyancy and hydraulic lift moved as far outboard as possible.

The search for the Ultimate Canting Keel

VOR 70 rules limit keel cant to 40 degrees. The geometry of most modern canting systems allows for a maximum cant of up to 50 degrees. Beyond 50 degrees the loads grow dangerously high. For SpeedDream we have developed a proprietary system that allows much higher cant angles while at the same time being able to significantly reduce loads. The goal is to ultimately sail the boat with the keel completely out of water thereby removing a significant amount of drag. Even if the keel is going get submerged periodically, on the whole this concept promises sizable benefits to overall drag reduction.

A Boat with Wings

Wings were first attached to the keel in 1983 to help the Australians win the America’s Cup. Recently we saw a huge wing sail propelling BMW Oracle to its victory. Now the SpeedDream designers are looking closer at wings, trying to utilize uniquely shaped hydrofoils to create additional righting moment and to partially offset the boat’s displacement. Placed near the center of gravity to diminish the negative effect of hull movement on their performance, these foils will be capable of creating lift equal to 30-50% of the total displacement.

The wings could be retractable or fixed and could be used as separate appendages or in combination with a daggerboard. The parameters of the wing will be decided in the later stages of design process.

Further analysis will be focused on finding the optimal size and shape of the hydrofoils and their profile in order to achieve maximum lift and minimal drag.

Making a Wet Boat Less Wet – and More Beautiful

It’s hard to underestimate the importance of the deck design and layout as it relates to performance since at high speed the deck will frequently get submerged. Its shape will be sculptured to shed water as quickly and to throw as little water and spray forward as possible and to prevent large amounts of water reaching the cockpit. All of this will help reduce resistance and provide the best protection for the crew.

“Naturally the task of protecting the crew from the elements on a boat intended to reach 50+ knots in real ocean conditions is an enormous design challenge, but we have a few interesting tricks up our sleeve that will help make this inevitably wet boat a little bit less wet and more comfortable for her crew,” says Murnikov.

The deck, with several strategically placed breakwaters, is designed to shed water aside as quickly as possible. The cockpit is set far aft and is significantly elevated relative to the rest of boat, and both the helmsman and crew are protected by good-size dodgers. The cockpit sole is a mesh trampoline with a deep, steeply sloped channel below that allows water to easily pass aft and discharge through the open transom with minimal impact on the crew and boat speed.

“It has to be said that so far no offshore sailboat has ever sailed at such speeds so we are venturing into totally uncharted territory. No one quite knows what we will face there,” admits Murnikov. “High performance sailing could be dangerous, but so is climbing Mount Everest or driving an F1 car. Our design team will keep working on making this boat as safe as possible and we believe that the experience gained throughout our project will greatly benefit all offshore sailors.”

All the functional attributes of the SpeedDream design also contribute to the boat’s strikingly futuristic image. “I view design as part science and part art and believe that beautiful boats are fast boats. This boat looks like nothing ever seen before and to my eye she is very beautiful, and therefore she has to be very fast,” jokes designer Murnikov.

Learning from Powerboats

Among other venues the SpeedDream design team is actively exploring are applications of stepped hulls, spray rails and other speed-enhancing features that are widely used on powerboats. “The next step will be to take a closer look on the benefits of bottom aeration in order to further reduce wetted surface,” says Murnikov.

“And that’s only a start. During the extensive research and development process, throughout design, construction and boat testing, our designers and engineers will keep improving our revolutionary SpeedDream concept until it evolves into the most extraordinary speed machine ever.”

For more information please take a look at the latest SpeedDream magazine found online at http://issuu.com/speeddream/docs/

It’s hard to find a better example of how sailing can be used to teach, inspire and aid development than Oman Sail. With a bit of political will and a long term vision that incorporates legacy factors, the sport of sailing can drive skills development, self esteem, national pride, technology transfer and tourism. In just 2 years, the project has proved that elite competition can drive grass-roots interest and that without the restrictions of ‘old fashioned yacht clubs’, sailing can be attractive and accessible.

Yesterday in Paris, the CEO of Oman Sail, David Graham hosted a press conference in Paris to talk about the competition that the Oman Sail team would be involved with in France in 2010. The Tour de France à la Voile, the Route du Rhum and the French leg of the Extreme Sailing Series Europe competition are the visible, billboard part of Oman Sail, but behind the competition lies a commitment to develop seven sailing schools across Oman ove the next 5 years and create an enduring capability to inspire, teach and coach young Omanis to be able to succeed in the field of maritime endeavour.

Nearly two years old, the project has already achieved a number of successes. In March 2009, Mohsin Al Busaidi became the first Omani and Arab to sail non-stop around the world on the trimaran Musandam (previously Ellen MacArthur’s Castorama/ B&Q). This was a source of huge national pride back home and inspiration to the youth. This success was soon followed by two Omani Extreme 40 entries taking both the European and Asian Extreme Sailing Series Circuits by storm with a double win on their boat Masirah and coming third and second respectively on the second Oman boat Renaissance / The Wave, Muscat. After two years as apprentices, two Omanis became full time sailors in the Asian circuit and Nasser Al Massari will now be moving over from the Extreme 40 circuit to the Omani Tour de France à la Voile team to share his expertise with the new Omani trainees.

With huge success on the international arena, back in Muscat the first of the Oman sailing schools was opened in mid-2009 and this now focuses on a double mission of forming an elite squad that is qualified to compete in international races at a high standard and secondly in developing a school and community sailing programme to give Omanis an opportunity to try the sport for themselves. The school now has six Omani instructors and three international coaches and consists of forty sailing dinghies and small sporting catamarans.

After two gruelling selection processes, the elite squad now consists of forty full-time Omani sailors learning to sail at a high standard and four hundred and fifty school children have already taken part in a six-week training course once a week after school that now enables them to sail safely on their own in light winds. A second sailing school will be opened later this year outside the capital Muscat, with a further five schools opening along the coast by 2015.

We’ll be covering the Paris announcements in more detail over coming days, but you can read the full story at the OMAN SAIL website

Record attempts are risky things to sponsor, but history has shown that they can deliver massive return on investment. Ask someone in the UK to remember a sailing moment and most will recall Ellen MacArthur becoming the fastest person to sail around the world. They may not be able to remember the actual achievement, but most will get the name right and know that it caused a big media fuss.

So, as sixteen year old Australian, Jessica Watson starts to head for home in the last legs of her record circumnavigation, sponsors are starting to jostle to have a piece of the promotional pie. The majority of the marketing success should go to early sponsors Ella Bache and One HD – they took the risk when many were saying the attempt was unsafe lunacy, but that won’t stop savvy brands from using Watson’s new found celebrity status to sell cars or banking products.

Australian media reports that Jessica Watson could be one of the country’s richest teenagers, with a “multi-million-dollar sponsorship bonanza awaiting her return to dry land”.

Spokesman Andrew Fraser said:

“We’ve had approaches from an automotive company but she hasn’t even got her L-plates yet. She’s old enough to sail round the world but can’t drive a car.”

The great news for sailing, is that the sport will be back on the front page of the papers and with any luck the front of cereal boxes and bank branches. The press are already positioning Watson as “a global star in the mould of Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright – transcending the confines of sailing to become a poster girl for action and adventure.”

The teenager’s website receives about one million hits (?) a week and her fan base has extended internationally. Naturally there will be a book, which she is writing at sea and no doubt there will be TV documentaries as well.

Jessica is now about 4000 nautical miles off the West Australian coast, about 6000 nautical miles from the finish of her voyage.

http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/_blog/Official_Jessica_Watson_Blog/

The growth of sailing in emerging markets is giving sponsors more options when it comes to matching sailing properties with communications goals.

This week Oman Sail have announced a new partnership with BAE Systems. Many sponsorships are based on targeting a specific audience in a specific market, and more sailing projects in more markets makes it easier for brands to use sailing as a marketing platform.

BAE Systems has a long and well-established relationship with Oman, a trusted partnership which dates back over 30 years, and is a major provider of defence equipment to the country. The partnership with Oman Sail is an important initiative for BAE Systems and is a demonstration of its commitment to this key market.

Oman Sail’s strategy of having multiple boats in multiple sailing disciplines allows the sponsorship to be leveraged to a wider audience. Given BAE Systems’ product and service offer, the Oman Sail project will also be important for B2G (Business to Government) activity.

BAE System’s partnership allows the company to have its branding on Masirah, the Extreme 40 boat currently at the top of the Extreme 40s Asia series leader board, and encompasses a wide range of activities, including sponsorship the development of the Oman Sailing School with apprenticeship programmes and sponsorship of a schools and education programme consisting of “Try Sailing” days for schools and young Omanis.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Guy Griffiths, Director International, commented:

“We are delighted to be working with Oman Sail on this exciting initiative, particularly in a country as important to us as Oman.”

“At BAE Systems, we are committed to education and skills development throughout our global business, and to support young people in developing their leadership skills. Through the Sailing School, Oman Sail’s aim is to make sailing accessible to the young people of Oman and this, in turn, allows them to develop the skills and experiences they need to create a sustainable sailing future for the country.

David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail, added:

“We are delighted to have BAE Systems as an official partner and thank them for their support. Their confidence in Oman Sail is extremely important to us and we look forward to having a rewarding partnership with them”.