Trinity Yachts Renew US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Sponsorship.

Trinity Yachts has renewed their partnership with the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and increased their support as a Silver Sponsor through 2012, US SAILING announced today.

An elite builder of custom superyachts in the United States, Trinity Yachts was founded by John Dane III, who represented the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in the Star class. After 40 years of Olympic sailing aspirations, Dane knows first-hand how much hard work and dedication an Olympic and Paralympic campaign entails. Trinity Yachts’ sponsorship of the team is a testimonial to Dane’s confidence in the athletes and the direction of the program, which he knows well.

As part of their new silver partnership, Trinity Yachts will provide direct funding, as well as a 43-foot RIB to be used by the program in Weymouth, England, at the venue of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions.

The US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics is made up of the United States’ top athletes in each of the 10 Olympic and three Paralympic classes who train together with the common goals of winning medals at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Weymouth, England.

USSTAG’s Commercial Director Dan Cooney said:

“Trinity Yachts has built a legendary reputation that has withstood Hurricane Katrina’s destruction and the 2008 financial collapse. We love the association with this world-class company that is winning against the world’s best by being smart and resilient. That’s a recipe for success that works for us, and we are grateful for their increased support and commitment to our athletes.”

Dane, who is also an active US SAILING board member.

“Trinity Yachts is very pleased to once again support all the great American athletes who are striving to make the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics the best in the world.”

More US SAiling Team News…

Laser Performance Upgrade US Sailing Team Sponsorship.

A couple of Olympic sponsorship stories today from the US and the UK. In the USA, LaserPerformance, a long-time official sponsor of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, has increased their support as a Bronze Partner to become a new Silver Partner of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and US Sailing Development Team (USSDT) through 2013.

Unlike the big-boat world,  where manufacturers can’t see the point of using racing to sell more boats, LaserPerformance is using the USSTAG sponsorship to strengthen its position as the world’s largest supplier of recreational and high performance sailboats. The company will strengthen their commitment to the teams by providing direct funding and, in addition, donating two ready-to-sail Laser sailboats annually, which will be auctioned at future fundraisers. The proceeds will directly benefit Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls.

Since 2001, LaserPerformance has shown a strong commitment to supporting the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, as well as the pipeline programs for developing young talent in the Laser and Laser Radial, the men’s and women’s singlehanded dinghy sailboats selected for the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2008, LaserPerformance also sponsored the five-person youth team that competed at the Laser Radial Youth World Championship in Takapuna Beach, New Zealand.

Dan Cooney, USSTAG’s Commercial Director said:

“LaserPerformance is a critical player in the sailing industry and we have been fortunate to have had their long-term support. We are delighted that, after seeing the changes we have made to the Commercial Program, LaserPerformance has decided to step-up their commitment and become a Silver Partner. It’s just a great match between two organizations that are both driven to obtain the highest levels of performance.”

LaserPerformance’s long-time partnership with the USSTAG serves as a valuable opportunity for both organizations to raise the profile of sailing, and ultimately, introduce more people to the sport across the country. Chip Wilkerson, Vice President of Marketing for LaserPerformance said:

“We’re very excited to support the team again. We look forward to working with US SAILING, the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics and the US Sailing Development Team to showcase the sport and get more people involved in sailing.”

Andrew Pindar Talks About the Benefits of Sailing Sponsorship.

The World Match Racing Tour is not your average boat race when it comes to sponsorship. Unlike most events, where the hull and sail area are a mobile floating billboard that is the property of the team, the WMRT setup gives this prime real-estate to the event organisers and tour sponsors.

What many people in the sailing business tend to forget is that the sailing doesn’t matter. Brands don’t really care if their name is on a car, a horse, the side of an opera house or a sailboat as long as the message is seen by the audience they want to communicate with. Most sailing sponsors are businesses that are trying to sell to other businesses, therefore the number of spectators is important, but the visitor experience is even more important.

Andrew Pindar OBE, Chairman of the Pindar Group, believes that the fit between the World Match Racing Tour and Pindar is  a good one. Pindar has a long-standing relation with the sport of sailing and has supported sailing campaigns across every level, ranging from grass roots and local community projects, through to match racing and global offshore events at the very pinnacle of the sport. The Pindar owned AlphaGraphics is the title sponsor of the US Sailing Team.

Pindar sees the value in sponsoring the sport of sailing, match racing and the World Match Racing Tour in particular. For more than 25 years, he has been leveraging the sport of sailing as a way of promoting his business. In an interview with Valencia Sailing recently he said:

“I could see that sailing had a lot of connections, a lot of metaphors with it that were relevant to the changing world of my industry,”

Similar to the Pindar Group’s business in a print and electronic media that had advanced tremendously with the advent of digital technology, the sport of sailing in recent years has also been completely revolutionised by the use of advanced technology in the hulls, masts and sails. In addition, sailing helps the company bring its message to the audience that it is serious about conserving the environment.

Printing has been an industry with the stigma of endangering the environment with waste products and with digital revolution that has changed. Hence, Pindar was quick to see the opportunity and relevancy between his business and sailing, and being associated with sailing helps send the message of environmental responsibility.

“I saw that sailing had many assets that would be relevant to the message we wanted to communicate in our marketplace.”

He explained that he has taken and interest in what was taking place in the world of match racing over the last five years. Pindar witnessed the St Moritz Match Race in 2004 and was impressed with the way the event was run especially the fact that spectators could be very close to the action.

“It was exciting, cut-and-thrust, a very good spectacle to watch and the races were understandable to all audiences, regardless of whether they were sailors or not, because races were short, happening in front of your eyes and it was clear which boat was going to finish first, and I thought this was something to learn more about.”

In having taken a liking to the sport, Pindar was introduced to skipper Ian Williams by Peter Holmberg (who was then racing with Alinghi) in 2005. Holmberg told him that Williams was the next big star in match racing and most significantly, that he did not have a sponsor. That was the start of Pindar’s foray into the World Match Racing Tour and being sponsor to Ian Williams.

Pindar saw a good fit with WMRT and the places the Tour visited, as those countries are also very important markets for the company’s business. In addition, the events have great visibility and guests and spectators alike get to experience top-level sailing themselves.

“The key difference with offshore racing for instance, such as the Transat Jacques Vabre or the Vendée Globe, is that, whilst you can follow them on the Internet you cannot really experience it the same way you can with a match racing event, that happens right in front of your eyes.”

He added that another attractive draw is that the match racers spend time during dinner with the guests and make efforts to explain what they did during the race and why they won or lost.

The new WMRT website lists Pindar as an Official sponsor, but the tour has been without a Title Sponsor for some time. Despite being an official world championship with a large international footprint and television coverage, the WMRT has perhaps not made the most of its potential. The new owners of the tour have ambitious plans to change that.

“We decided to partner with the Tour because we could see that it was going to grow and develop and that what Peter Gilmour and Datuk Patrick Lim had achieved with the event in Malaysia was a model of what could be achieved elsewhere on the Tour.”

“I firmly believe the Tour will keep growing and is an exciting proposition for companies to associate with, either on an event basis, by sponsoring a team or as a partner to the Tour itself.” This is why Pindar has been partnering the Tour for the last four years with the main involvement being to promote the Pindar business. Pindar seeks brand exposure – for people to see the Pindar name, visit its website and learn more about what the company does. “It is also a very good avenue to drive traffic to our website and great opportunity to take our best clients to the events.”

Pindar has launched a sailing initiative in the Middle East, in the Kingdom of Bahrain, called ‘Sail Bahrain’ with the aim of, amongst others, nurturing the next generation of local sailing champions and attracting events to the region. Ian Williams will be involved in various activities in Bahrain and ultimately, Pindar aims to host a WMRT event there.

US SAILING Team Commerical Award Won By Graham Biehl.

Do you ever get the feeling that we seem to whinge and complain a lot? It’s not that there aren’t great things being done in sailing, it’s more that there seems to be a lot of crap that could be done better. Not this story. US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics have presented awards for excellence and one of them is a Commercial Award.

There is a deep vein of amateurism that runs through sailing, which is a great thing for many reasons including the fact that keeps the sport alive when times are tough. But the reality is that sport in 2010 is big business and sailing needs to consider the commercial side of things more carefully.

It’s great to see that along with the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards for Best Individual Performance, Best Team Performance, Best Performance by a Newcomer, Best Teammate, Most Improved Fitness, there is the Commercial Award.

Dean Brenner, Chairman of the US Olympic Sailing Program said:

‘Our program is focused on excellence, and these awards were created to reward the team members who exemplify the work ethic we’re looking for on our team’

The Commercial Award, which is presented to the athlete who has made an outstanding effort in support of the commercial and sponsorship activities of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, was presented to Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.). Graham distinguished himself by giving the team specific and actionable feedback on their Atlantis Weathergear apparel selection and actually worked directly with Atlantis on design of a podium shirt. Graham also helped move our sail and hull branding scheme from version 1.0 to 2.0.

Dan Cooney, Commercial Director said:

We are excited about this award as it fosters a culture of collaboration between the team and the team’s sponsors that makes our program better for everyone. We are lucky because our entire team has bought into the sponsor program in a big way. The credit goes to the sailors and especially the coaches for making this transition to a more structured commercial program.  Nearly all the athletes are contributing to improving our delivery of sponsor value making our job easy.

More on the other award winners here: sailingteams.ussailing.org

US Sailing Team Partner Leverages Sailing’s Experiential Assets.

Sailing is more than a sport. It can be a multi-dimensional platform that can be tailored to deliver against all kinds of different goals. Now that might sound like marketing-speak, but sailing, as shown by the iShares Cup has the ability to engage partners in a way that other sports can’t, whether it be riding on board during a race as the ’5th man’ or competing in corporate races or giving people chances they might not otherwise have.

Sailing is a also a natural fit for team building. The team aspect of sailing is almost unique in that members of the team must all be working simultaniously to get the best results. So its a natural fit for Group Experiential Learning (GEL) to joined forces with the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) as a new bronze-level partner.

GEL will deliver high impact team building and leadership training experiences for current and future USSTAG sponsors. As part of the partnership, GEL will introduce some of USSTAG’s non-endemic sponsors to the sport of sailing, while offering sailing veterans the opportunity to sharpen their skills and enhance their teamwork on the water. Many GEL events will feature participation by USSTAG’s Olympians and Olympic hopefuls.

Jay Palace, President of GEL says:

‘Sailing is an extremely team-oriented sport. Because sailboats won’t move without coordination between a helmsperson and the sail trimmers, it’s the perfect platform for improving communication, collaboration and developing leadership capabilities needed by high performance teams. The challenges GEL participants face on the water literally mirror what happens inside the office.’

USSTAG’s title sponsor, AlphaGraphics, has tapped GEL to organize a special introduction to sailing and racing, during which AlphaGraphics’ franchisees will sail side-by-side with USSTAG members in Naples, Fla. in early 2010. The afternoon of racing will strengthen relationships and give participants a unique glimpse into the training, preparation and focus required to win medals at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Dan Cooney, USSTAG’s Commercial Director says:

‘We are excited to welcome GEL to the team because they are terrific at what they do and they will contribute a new element to our program. We are constantly thinking about new ways our partners can leverage their investment in the team, and GEL provides a truly unique opportunity for a sponsor’s employees and clients. Introducing new people to the sport through this sponsorship is a welcome bonus.’

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