The partnership, which will be described as ‘TEAMORIGIN racing with Jaguar’ comes under the umbrella of the Jaguar Academy of Sport, which aims to recognise, celebrate and inspire the very best of British sporting talent and success.

The deal helps Jaguar strengthen its environmental credentials, not only through the associations of a wind-powered sport, but also through signing up to TEAMORIGIN’s ‘Race for Change’ which compels partners of the team to adhere to strict environmental goals monitored by the Carbon Trust.

Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal, TEAMORIGIN, commented:

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jaguar as our partner. There is a superb fit and alignment of purpose between TEAMORIGIN and Jaguar. Jaguar is clearly one of the most revered and iconic British brands and, just as Jaguar is now taking on and beating the best in the automotive world, so our mission is to take on and beat the best in the world on the water. The fit is further enhanced through our shared commitment to improve our environmental performance.”

Geoff Cousins, Managing Director, Jaguar UK commented:

“To partner with TEAMORIGIN is a fantastic opportunity for Jaguar. We are looking forward to the first appearance this summer at the 1851 Cup event, an exciting competition, which will see Britain’s best sailing talent compete against the current holders of The America’s Cup. It’s a mouth-watering prospect and one we are proud to support. This is a serious British endeavour, which fits perfectly with the recently launched Jaguar Academy of Sport, which is all about investing in the future of British Sporting talent.”

TEAMORIGIN’s newly branded livery will appear during Cowes Week and will feature striking Jaguar branding on both the hull and sails. The spinnaker will feature a Jaguar leaper in Union Jack Motif, the symbol of the Jaguar Academy of Sport.

Ben Ainslie, Skipper and Helmsman of TEAMORIGIN,commented:

“TEAMORIGIN’s goal is to win the America’s Cup for Great Britain, to achieve this we need to engage the support of like minded partners. In Jaguar, we can see great synergies where they share our passion for sport and competition at the highest level.”

More Automotive Sailing Sponsorship News…

Garry Lock, Managing Director Harken Australia said:

‘It is Harken’s commitment to assist the talents of up and coming sailors that led to the association with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Youth Sailing Academy. Harken, globally has a long tradition in encouraging and assisting further development of youth sailing, the future masters of the sport. On the local front, many promising young sailors have gone onto further their sailing careers after training at the CYCA YSA. We are pleased to continue our relationship with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for a further two years.’

CYCA Commodore Garry Linacre said:

‘It is wonderful to have the support of a great sailing orientated company like Harken. This company was built by sailors, is managed by sailors and it is just wonderful to see Harken supporting young sailors in this way. Harken’s support in providing our Youth Sailing Academy equipment to world class standards is greatly appreciated. To Garry Lock and his team, we thank you for your past involvement and continuing commitment. Your efforts are appreciated and we look forward to your presence around the club to witness the product of your support.’

Harken Australia also sponsors the Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta, conducted annually by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

More Australian Sailing Business News…

White says:

“How cool is to be Wight Vodka’s Brand Czar for the next year? Very cool. Let’s face the facts! When Ritu and I worked together last year on the OSTAR, I knew we were onto something special. Wight Vodka has such a fabulous focus on the yachting lifestyle that I love so much, that the White and Wight partnership was destined to mature. This is just one more step in a long partnership together!”

The role will make Hannah the face of the brand in several activation campaigns throughout the year.

I’ll be marketing and promoting the Wight Vodka brand everywhere I travel. If you’re a bar or yacht club on the Atlantic or Pacific coast that I’ll be visiting over the coming year, you better have Wight Vodka on the top shelf! I’m also launching a news service to the yachting fraternity through a series of Podcasts over the coming 12 months, with a deeper insight into the sailor’s competitive and somewhat hectic lifestyle than previously seen. We’re calling these Vodcasts in recognition of Wight Vodka’s support. I’ll also be carrying the Wight Vodka branding on the boat and our kit.

Ritu Manocha, owner of 50 North, the company behind Wight Vodka says:

“This is a significant step forward for the White and Wight brand alliance. We knew from working with Hannah on her fabulous trans-Atlantic success in the 2009 OSTAR that we wanted to continue with our relationship. ‘White and Wight’ is such an obviously superb pairing. The hardest part of this relationship was figuring out what to call Hannah: Brand Ambassador? Emissary? Brand Agent (or Secret Agent)? Special Envoy? We went for Brand Czar because it sounded right with just a little edge to it!”

More Sailing Sponsorship News…

It’s a typical generation gap piece that sets up the stereotypes against each other, but it highlights the difficulty that sailing has positioning itself. While the PR people pitch the event as part of the ‘Summer Season’ and are quite happy to use celebrities like Zara Phillips to add glamour to the regatta, it seems that ‘well-heeled, hard drinking’ youth are not welcome, despite bringing a touch of F1 to sleepy Cowes.

The owners of Mahiki, will moor a £6 million Sunseeker yacht at the Yacht Haven, Cowes’ biggest marina. A cocktail bar and club will be set up in a marquee on the harbourside with room for up to 400 people, who will party until after midnight. According to the Telegraph, many guests will arrive by helicopter, landing at a temporary helipad in a nearby school, and be driven by chauffeurs to the bars a few minutes away. Mahiki will face competition from Raffles, a private-members club in the King’s Road, which will set up a marquee at Cowes’s second biggest marina, the Peppermint Shepards Wharf, and stay open until 2am.

While OC Events have announced a week long series of DJ sets at their Extreme Bar, they aren’t included in this piece that set up the ‘establishment’ as old fuddy duddy folk who don’t like loud noise. Anonymous sources that really do sound made up are quoted as saying:

“The social side is a very important part of Cowes week. But I’m not sure we want an invasion of the sort of people who are raucous and stagger out of nightclubs in the small hours. We have traditions at Cowes and they must be respected. Last year, we had John Prescott here. That was bad enough and now we’ve got to put up with this lot.”

If only they sailed it might be alright….

Jackie Head, the chief executive of the Royal Corinthians Yacht Club, said:

“We want to attract younger people. Most of our more serious sailors are in their 50s and 60s. But today’s teenagers seem happier to live in the cyberworld on their computers or go out partying than to get their hands wet and learn to sail.”

Leaving aside the massive generalisation about teenagers as being obsessed with screens that ignores the fact that the most popular sites in ‘cyberworld’ like Facebook are driven by real world interactions resulting in photo sharing and that sports are a huge driver of those interactions, this kind of statement just alienates new sailors. As if people go to the polo to ride horses or visit Henley to row.

Luckily, Cowes Week organisers are a bit more forward thinking. The mooring fees of a £6 million Sunseeker will be pretty substantial and there should be flow on benefits. Stuart Quarrie, the chief executive of Cowes Week Ltd, the organisers, said that Mahiki and Raffles were “positive additions” to the regatta.

“They are upmarket places and we don’t have any other cocktail bars,” he said. “They will bring something slightly different to Cowes.”

We’ll be at Cowes next week. Looking forward to it.

More Cowes Week News..

Nevertheless, the project to make the next America’s Cup a televisual feast has begun and sceptics are hopeful that something good will come out of the investment. Popular sailing blog, Valencia Sailing said:

If this is not a genuine, open and open-minded attempt at making the America’s Cup and sailing much more accessible to the media then I’ll be damned! As you’ll see in the photos there are plenty of cameras, cameramen and photographers, some of them in the most unusual places. Some of the ideas will certainly turn out to be useless, impractical or even stupid. However, I’m sure that some others will give us great footage. Unless you try all of them, you’ll never know if they work or not.

16 cameras captured over four hours of sailing in a combined 60 hours of video as Russell Coutts and James Spithill of BMW ORACLE Racing tested two RC44 monohulls side by side in a series of close-proximity maneuvers.

Three onboard cameramen (two on one boat) augmented the fixed and remote control cameras, and upwards of 25 microphones, including surround-sound microphones, captured the crews’ voices and ambient noise.

Russell Coutts said:

“I thought we certainly achieved what we set out at the beginning of the day, which was to get baseline viewing angles for comparison later in the weekend when we try to alter the racecourse and carry out similar exercises in X40 multihulls. “This evaluation process is all about testing new ideas, and we did that.”

Filming the action is one thing, but there is also a sense that the rules might have to be changed to force sailors to break habits. The official statement from yesterday’s sailing gives some clues to some of the ideas that organisers have for more exciting sailing:

The action became intense when the start box was limited to five boatlengths in width and depth. Required to stay inside the box, the two crews circled around each other for three minutes before breaking off to head to the start line.

The aim is to have the footage available to view on the blog of the official America’s Cup web site so that the public can comment, but even with the technological grunt of ORACLE behind the project, getting 60 hours of Video onto the internet is a challenge. The HD footage is still being ‘ingested’.

More America’s Cup News…

Mr Beazley said:

“Two of our main aims at Perth 2011 are to increase awareness of the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and to raise the profile of the sport of sailing. The partnership with WAtoday.com.au will provide a significant boost to the Sailing World Championships with promotion of the Event and the sport, through local and national coverage via its sister sites – smh.com.au, theage.com.au and brisbanetimes.com.au – and through international readership opportunities.”

WAtoday.com.au Marketing Manager Nicola Brandon agreed that the collaboration was exciting saying:

“WAtoday.com.au is thrilled to come on board as the media partner for Perth 2011. This is a great event for sailing and for Perth. WAtoday.com.au delivers Western Australia with high quality breaking news and we look forward to sharing this Event with our visitors.”

The partnership should assist in driving traffic to the Perth 2011 website, however a quick search of the WAtoday.com.au website shows that the media outlet is a little light on sailing content, despite Perth being the home of some of Australia’s best sailors. While the portal reports on Belcher and Page winning the 470 World Championships last week, a search for Torvar Mirsky – who represents Western Australia in the World Match Racing Tour and is ranked 3rd in the world, returns zero search results.

More Olympic Sailing News…

One event that is trying to use the same model is the Barcelona Round the World Race. The event’s organising body, the FNOB (Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing), is trying to create a World Class event for professional offshore sailors, but also used the race to promote offshore yacht racing in Spain through the ‘Barcelona Ocean Sailing Base’; a structure that brings together industries, universities, logistical support and sponsor research to help foster new talent in the offshore sailing world. The initiative also supports the “Escuderia”, a sailing team that includes four IMOCA 60’s and gives a fantastic opportunity to some new and very talented sailors.

The World Yacht Racing Forum talks to Andor Serra, Director General of the FNOB in their latest newsletter. While it doesn’t touch on the calendar conflict between the Barcelona World Race and the VELUX 5 OCEANS Race – both for Open 60 yachts, the interview gives an insight into the goals of the project.

WYRF: What is your status of preparation towards the Barcelona World Race, six months ahead of the event?

Andor Serra: “We are on schedule! We have been organizing two big test events which took place over the Spring and last month (the New-York – Barcelona Transoceanic Sailing Record and the Vuelta Espana a Vela). This has helped us identify our weaknesses and correct them. We know precisely what we need to do before the race.”

WYRF: What are your current priorities?

Andor Serra: “We are developing some technological projects aimed at increasing the coverage of the race. Our biggest project is Barcelona World Race Television; it will help us to produce and distribute high quality footage of the event, and will increase our visibility.”

WYRF: So your main objective is the same as the America’s Cup’s?

Andor Serra: “There must be a good reason for this… The sport of sailing always struggles to be on television and it is essential for event organizers to invest in order to increase their return through television.”

WYRF: You are organizing an event on one hand and promoting offshore yacht racing on another, through (amongst others) a sailing team that comprises four boats. How do both projects relate to one another?

Andor Serra: “The two projects compliment each other; they are also independent from each other. We needed to create this structure in Spain because there was no culture of short-handed offshore racing in our country. We have therefore developed a structure that brings together industries, universities, logistical support, sponsor research etc. Its ultimate purpose is to generate value.”

WYRF: Can this concept be replicated? Perhaps it would be a good model for other countries…

Andor Serra: “Well, every country is different and has different needs. Our culture is very close to the French one and our model is the training centre in Port La Forêt. It is a very efficient model that can surely be replicated; however, before you create a structure in a country, you need to be sure you have enough candidates…”

More World Yacht Racing Forum News…

Offshore solo racing is a fantastic R&D lab and allows the brand to make claims of functionality and comfort. As Van Liew’s Technical Clothing Sponsor, Gill’s broad line of wicking shirts, pants, fleeces, hats, jackets and foul weather gear will be an important factor in Van Liew’s safety, comfort and competitive goals.

Brad said:

“Gill makes products that work. They are constantly doing the research and development necessary to offer superior options for inshore and offshore sailing. I trust them to provide products that are durable, light, and breathable for the extreme environment I will face offshore.”

During offshore training sessions this summer and the Transatlantic sail from the U.S. to the start of the race in France this fall, Van Liew and his crew will sport Gill’s OS1 Atlantic foul weather gear constructed using a 5 Dot™, 3-layer highly breathable waterproof fabric. Van Liew calls it tough and functional. Gill’s Race Collection, which offers a UV protection factor of 50+, will be used for some of the lighter conditions offshore and during inshore sails devoted to final boat preparations and sponsors.

In warmer conditions Gill’s technical t-shirts will wick moisture away from the skin and dry quickly. The fact that they are made from100% recycled material pleases Van Liew as he has some clear objectives for sustainable living during the race. He will attempt to sail the entire 9 months without using any fossil fuels whatsoever, assisted by hydrogenerators and solar panels. The ECO 60 boat he will be racing is in fact recycled as well, built in 1998 and raced in dozens of events since then.

David Pritchard, President of Gill North America says:

“Gill is proud to align our brand with Brad and Team Lazarus. Brad has the experience and spirit to win that make for great racing and I trust we will all enjoy watching the action throughout the event.”

More Sailing Clothing and Apparel News…