TEAMORIGIN Partner with the Carbon Trust to Create Environmental Sailing Platform.

It was only a matterof time before a savvy yacht racing team made the most of the glaring environmental advantage that sailing has over things like motorsport. Today the Sunday Times reports that UK America’s Cup Team – TeamOrigin, run by Sir Keith Mills is partnering with the Carbon Trust to appeal to corporate environmental credentials and raise £75 million in sponsorship for the team.

TeamOrigin and the Carbon Trust will  launch a new environmental campaign named The Race for Change – a platform to attract other corporate sponsors.

It’s not the first – or the last time – we will see the lines blurred between not-for-profit and sports sponsorship. The Honda F1 team in 2008 ran a car featuring a picture of the earth and attempted to mix green credentials with hard-core commerical racing. Football (Soccer) team Barcelona carried the UNICEF logos on their shirts and many other sports teams have adopted charities, but this is a little different. By involving the Carbon Trust in sailing, it gives a huge legitimacy to the environmental credentials of the sport. Teams other that TeamOrigin may benefit from awareness generated by the campaign.

Although the current America’s Cup does not involve TeamOrigin and the future of the Cup after February 2010 is unknown, the team can compete in other events while they wait. Specifically, TeamOrigin have an opportunity to compete in the newly announced Louis Vuitton ‘World’ Series which uses old America’s Cup boats, but is not the America’s Cup. Sir Keith, who is also Deputy Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee, perhaps controversially, says that the traditional sponsorship equation where brands use elite athletes to promote their product or service through association is not enough anymore.

“The America’s Cup is a perfect vehicle to carry the message of climate change. In the current downturn, big companies are looking to get a lot more from the events and the sports teams they choose to sponsor. It doesn’t cut it any more if you just ask for money. A lot of companies are spending a lot of money on environmental projects. We are building a whole package through this deal with the Carbon Trust that will allow us to harness the power of sport with the environmental debate and help us all work towards lowering our carbon footprint.”

The Carbon Trust will also ensure that TeamOrigin limits its impact on the environment. While the sailboats themselves might be powered by the wind, a renewable energy, the team compete around the world and use air travel extensively. America’s Cup boats are manufactured from materials that use huge amounts of energy and are almost impossible to recycle.

Strangely, the Carbon Trust don’t see sponsorship as a legitimate marketing tool. While the organisation spends big money on outdoor advertising in places like London’s Waterloo station and television advertising, Tom Delay, the trust’s chief executive, says:

“It would be wrong for us to commit any of our money to a normal sponsorship deal – that would not be an appropriate use of our funds.

Hopefully, the deal will open the eyes of some of the large energy companies with interests in alternative energy, particularly wind, to the benefits offered by sailing.

The Sunday Times Article can be read here…

Goetz Reprieve As Racing Yacht Build Restarts

Goetz Custom Sailboats has rehired nearly its entire work force after an international customer resumed payments on an order for a high-end racing yacht.

The 34-year-old Bristol boat builder went into receivership Jan. 6 after the contract with the customer, a private individual from Scotland, was suspended because of the worsening international economy. As a result, the company laid off all of its 75 employees.

But after the client recommitted to the project, Goetz rehired about 40 percent of its workers last week and another 40 percent on Wednesday. About 60 people are now working at the company’s shop on Broad Common Road.

Eric Goetz, founder and chief executive officer of the company, said yesterday that despite the problems, he has received tremendous support from his workers and the local boat-building community as a whole. Over the past few weeks, sometimes as many as 30 employees were at work even though they were not getting paid, he said.

“They had faith that we’d get back up and running,” Goetz said.

The turnaround for Goetz is a small piece of good news for the state’s marine industry, which has seen the steady growth of recent years slow considerably as the economy has weakened. Pearson Composites, of Warren, laid off half its 120-person work force Jan. 16 because of slumping sales. Freedom Yachts, in Middletown, and Albin Boats, in Portsmouth, both closed within the past year.

“There’s a lot of carnage out there,” Goetz said.

The problems with the Scottish customer had such a deep impact on Goetz Custom Sailboats because the company typically works on only one or two boats at any given time. Those yachts are very expensive, some of the carbon-fiber composite boats cost as much as $8 million.

Without the cash flow for one of the two boats currently under construction, the company quickly fell behind on payroll and payments to suppliers. Employees were let go Dec. 31 after being paid.

Now that work is back under way, the boat for the Scottish client is set to be completed at the end of July. The second boat under construction, which was commissioned by a customer in England, will not be finished until next year.

Goetz said that he is trying to line up more jobs, but the economy is unfavorable.

“We’re talking to people,” he said, “but it’s a tough time to sell things, especially luxury items.”

Although Goetz is relieved that his company has been able to start up again, its future is uncertain. Receivership is a form of bankruptcy in which a court appoints a trustee to either liquidate a company or sell its assets to pay the accumulated debt. The petition for receivership filed in Providence County Superior Court says the company owes Citizens Bank approximately $2 million.

Goetz said that Providence lawyer Thomas S. Hemmendinger, the court-appointed receiver, has yet to schedule an auction to sell the company’s assets. When Hemmendinger does, Goetz said he will be there to make a bid.

Hugo Boss Out of the Race

Sponsorship of offshore racing has big risks. While Hugo Boss has been getting loads of media coverage over the last few weeks, it’s not the kind they would have been hoping for. 

Alex Thomson has officially retired from the Vendee Globe race today. The damage sustained to his IMOCA Open 60 yacht HUGO BOSS on Monday night is not repairable by next Wednesday’s restart deadline. It is thought the damage was sustained by a collision with a submerged object.

There is a transverse crack that runs through the outer and inner skin of the boat. The crack extends 5 metres to almost the centreline. The unidirectional fibres that make up the outside layer of the boat have peeled off from the start of the crack to the back of the boat. There is also a 10cm x 10cm compression to the hull which has pushed the core in and a deflection inside the hull.

Alex Thomson speaking on news that HUGO BOSS cannot be repaired in time for the restart: “They think that the repairs are going take a matter of weeks not a matter of days, so it means I’m out of the race, that that’s, the end. So four years and this is where we get to, it’s very disappointing. But enough’s enough, we’ve looked at it and if there was a possibility of fixing it we’d fix it. But apparently there isn’t a possibility. ”

“It’s just awful, not just for me but the team, you know we worked really hard and built a new boat, just to get ready for this one race, and to be out of it just three days in just doesn’t feel right at all, it feels very hard to be back here again.”

Asked if Thomson’s dream of completing the Vendee Globe is over: “We will be back here in 2012 to do it again, we are not going to give up now. We know we’ve got a great team of people and the dream isn’t over for sure, we’re just going to have to put it off for a while .”

“It’s gutting, I feel very sad not only for me, but also my sponsors and the team. These things happen in sailing, you just have to pick yourself up and move forward, my Vendee dreams are not over.” Concluded Thomson.

Speaking to Pascal Conq this morning he explained their thoughts on what could have happened to cause the 5metre long crack. “There is an area of compression on the hull, which has also pushed the core in, plus there is a deflection inside the inside the hull which would signify an impact with something underwater. We have ruled out panel failure from the boat slamming into the waves as the panels run in the wrong direction for the crack.”

Asked if the structural damage was in anyway related to the fishing boat impact last month. “Of course at this stage we can’t say this isn’t anything to do with the fishing boat impact, we will continue to investigate.” Explained Pascal Conq, the designer of HUGO BOSS.