Jessica Watson Australia’s No. 1 Sailor.

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..

Appointments: LOCOG Announce Core Olympic Sailing Team

We don’t normally cut and paste articles, but this one from the official ISAF site is fairly self explanatory.

The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has appointed its core Sailing team which will deliver the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing events at Weymouth and Portland in the summer of 2012.

Each member of the four person team has extensive Olympic and Paralympic experience and between them they have covered every Olympic and Paralympic Games from 1984 in Los Angeles through to Beijing in 2008.

The team is headed by Rob Andrews, (GBR) the Sailing Manager, who has overall responsibility for the Sailing events in 2012. He was part of the successful British coaching team up to the Athens Games in 2004 after which he transferred to event management. This included the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth World Championship which was described by the ISAF Youth Chairman as the best ever ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship to date.

Rob commented:

“This is the strongest team that I could have hoped to recruit, and the team has a wide range of experience covering many different working areas such as running competitions, coaching, team management, National Olympic, National Paralympic and Organising Committee experience. I believe we will be able to put on world class sailing events in 2012 and work closely with all our stakeholders.”

Rod Carr (GBR) joins LOCOG at the end of July 2010 as the Field of Play Manager. Rod has extensive Sailing experience having just retired as Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Yachting Association – sailing’s national governing body. Rod recently received a CBE for his services to sailing in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He will manage all aspects of the Field of Play including managing the Race Teams and Integrating International Federation Officials. Rod will also approve and manage the volunteer teams picked from the UK.

Rod said;

“I am delighted to have a role at the Olympic Regatta in 2012 and look forward to helping run a memorable event. It is an honour to be part of an Olympic and Paralympic Games on home soil”

Tessa Bartlett (nee Pelly) is the Sailing Services Manager, and will responsible for the planning, organisation and management of the administration functions of the Sailing events at the London 2012 Games. She has worked with the British sailing team at the Athens Games, as well as working on the GBR America’s Cup programme during the 2003 America’s Cup. Her skills were further enhanced by organising Ellen McArthur’s Asian Record Circuit.

Peter Allam (GBR) is the Sailing Technical Operations manager. He is the Olympic medallist in the team, having crewed for Jo Richards in the Flying Dutchman Class, winning a bronze medal in 1984. Pete has combined a highly competitive sailing career with building custom race boats, focusing more recently on production yacht manufacturing. He will be responsible for the shore side operation, including control of all the equipment and measurement, linking with ISAF and working from Portland Marina.

As part of its preparation for the delivery of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing events and the delivery of the full London 2012 Test Event scheduled for August 2011, the current team will be seconded to the RYA for two weeks this August to help deliver the Sail for Gold Regatta. The LOCOG team will also observe the IFDS Paralympic World Championship in July 2011.

Who’s Who in Sailing? Build your professional yacht racing network.

Estate Master Sponsorship Provides Belcher and Page Flexibility.

By Lynn Fitzpatrick

Martin Hill is CEO of Estate Master and one of the greatest Belcher & Page London Challenge 2012 supporters. Malcolm Page is the logistics manager and trimmer for Estate Master’s flagship marketing vehicle, its Farr 40 team. Both teams compete in Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Europe where over 1,300 companies use Estate Master’s real estate valuation software. The teams also compete in North America, which is an expansion market for Estate Master.

It’s no coincidence that the company uses sailing as a marketing platform. A passionate sailor, Hill, is theEstate Master Farr 40 team’s skipper and he and Page won a gold medal in the Tasar at the 2009 Master Games in Sydney. Page rates the win right up there with his other medals. “Martin spent two months training in the boat, and we sailed a textbook style regatta. It was a credit toMartin to show his skills and commitment in an unfamiliar environmentand a perfect example of the business innovation and skills that he uses everyday.”

Says Hill of the Tasar experience; “The old man’s gold medal is definitely a highlight for me as it shows our quickness to take on challenge, our preparation effort (both in Malcolm’s research, preparation and fine tuning of the boat), our training and our attitude in the regatta. Mal’s philosophy all along was, ‘Let us just sail our race and do our best.’ I didn’t even know wehad won the gold medal when we crossed the line.”

Page has been working with Hill and Estate Master for 5 years. “I’m extremely fortunate to have such an understanding employer,” says Page. “As you can imagine, training and competing at this level in the 470 Class is time consuming and keeps me away from home and out of the office for extended periods of time, especially as the Olympics draws near. Martin (Hill) understands and is as flexible as Gumby when it comes to preparing for the Olympic regatta. He is one of the first to say that to be competitive in sailing you need the backing of a team. All of the sailors on his team are grateful for his support, friendship and dedication to the sport. He is a great mentor.”

Page manages the team logistics from a mobile phone and his laptop when he is home in Australia or traveling. There have been times when major Farr 40 regattas overlap with 470 regattas, as was the case with this year’s Farr 40 Word Championship in Caso de Campo, Dominican Republic. It was early enough in the quadrennium that Page raced with the Estate Master Farr 40 team while Australian 470 training partner, Will Ryan, substituted for him in the 470. Belcher and Ryan won Semaine Olympique Francaise, one of the ISAF World Cup regattas.

While Hill and Estate Master understand and tolerate flexible schedules, they demand dedication, preparation and application of science from the sailing team and in the powerful and easy to use property software solutions for property acquisition,disposition, development, management, appraisal and valuation that theyhave developed. Estate Master and its sailing team are leaders in their fields and play a significant role in showcasing Australia’s sailing talent on a world stage.

More Olympic Sailing News…

UPS Deliver Boats to 2012 Olympic Sailing Venue.

Getting stuff from A to B is expensive. The smart thing to do, whether you are a team or an event organiser is get yourself a distribution or logistics partner who will subsidise the cost.

UPS, as an Official Supporter of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, is responsible for virtually all the distribution and logistics services for the London 2012 Games. The company has completed delivery of the first set of safety and competition officials’ lifeboats to the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy, which will serve as the host venue for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events.

The twenty-one rigid inflatable boats (RIBs), which have been transported from Valencia, Spain where they were deployed during the 33rd America’s Cup, will play an active part in all of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events.

Over the course of the next two years, UPS will transport a number of sailing items to the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ranging from larger items such as competition boats to flags and signage to be used across the sailing venue.

Alan Williams, UPS Director London 2012 Sponsorship & Operations, said:

“Organising the logistics for an event as equipment-intensive as sailing requires a lot of precision in both the planning and execution phases of delivery. Knowing that these boats will play a vital role in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events adds an extra layer of pressure, but it’s a challenge we continue to relish as we count down to the Games.”

More Olympic Sailing News…

The Aussies Love Audi

By Lynn Fitzpatrick

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…

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