ALL4ONE? squad was established originally by Stéphane Kandler and Jochen Schümann in September of 2009. Other German sponsors include Adidas. The Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE boat will not only contest the five regattas of the Audi MedCup between May and September but also the TP52 World Championships in Sicily in October.

Lothar Korn, AUDI AG Head of Marketing Communications said:

“We’ve been partnering with the Audi MedCup for several years now and are equally thrilled with the top-caliber sporting competition and the possibilities for presentations on water and along the coast? The additional support of the Franco-German boat now provides us with close links to the team and enables us to offer our guests and customers an unforgettable sporting experience?.

The TP52 represents the Kieler Yacht Club (GER) and the Cercle de la Voile de Paris (FRA) and is currently located at its home yacht harbor in Valencia. From there, the yacht will be taken directly to the Audi MedCup season opener to be staged in Cascais (Portugal) from May 11 to 16.

Audi MedCup Circuit Director, Ignacio Triay said:

“This is great news for the Circuit, not just because we see an increase in terms of entries, but also because of the rise in quality of team competitiveness. Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE means the first French team in the history of the Audi MedCup, and the combination of Jochen Schümann and Stéphane Kandler promises to prove tough competition for the other 10 teams.”

Audi has announced that it will support one of Australia’s premier keelboat regattas for another three years, bringing its title sponsorship of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week to six years and its involvement in the event to seven.

The 27th regatta is scheduled to take place from 20-28 August, 2010 and will feature the inclusion of a new division for superyachts, including Lang Walker’s magnificent new 58-metre sloop, Kokomo. In contrast to an event that hosted 93 yachts in 1984 on an Island under early construction, 200 boats now race from the start-line of the newly opened Hamilton Island Yacht Club. Australia’s premier yachts and well-known faces flock to the Whitsundays Island for the week-long spectacle that many now consider a central fixture on Australia’s social and sporting calendar.

Javier Degen, Hamilton Island Marketing Director stated,

“Race Week has grown immensely over the last few years and we are delighted with the continuation of our partnership with Audi. Last year’s social program further raised the bar of what people have come to expect of the event and plans are in full swing to ensure that we do not disappoint this year. The stunning new Hamilton Island Yacht Club will form a central venue for the week’s events and the new Hamilton Island Golf Club will provide an extra element to the week for those who are looking for an alternative to the sailing.”

Anna Burgdorf, General Manager of Corporate Communications at Audi Australia, stated,

“Our sponsorship of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week is one of the key events in our national sailing sponsorship program. It is the jewel in the crown of our annual program for customers and guests who attend the event, and importantly it is also the final race in our prestigious four-part Audi IRC Australian Championship series. The competition and carnival atmosphere of the regatta makes this a special event on which to conclude the championship. We take our sponsorship of the event very seriously – awarding a brand new Audi vehicle to the winning team of the week’s racing.”

The Audi Med Cup series has managed to establish itself as one of the most recognisable and prestigious annual series in professional yacht racing. The series attracts the world’s best sailors and has stayed true to it’s concept, not over-reaching with events in new markets. The TP52 has shown to be a boat that can be adapted to suit the competitive nature of owners and in the absence of an AC34 rule, provides teams with a training platform to keep teams at the top of their game.

Audi MedCup organisers have announced that two of Europe’s most desirable cities, Barcelona and Cascais/Lisbon, have now been confirmed as venues for the 2010 calendar.

Nacho Postigo, Technical Manager of the Circuit said:

“ It’s realising a dream for us in many ways. We have been wanting to go to Barcelona for a long time. In sailing it is one of the most renowned Spanish venues for every sailor, and also to Cascais, where strong wind should be assured”

Cascais, in May

The Audi MedCup Circuit 2010 schedule opens with an entirely new venue. The year’s first event will take place between the 11 and the 16 of May in Cascais, Portugal.

Few cities in Europe can offer the weather conditions which the Portuguese city enjoys in spring and summer.. The reputation for strong, consistent winds was apparent when the city hosted the 2007 ISAF World Sailing Championships, and the venue is open to the Atlantic which should ensure big swells.

It could be the Estoril Circuit of sailing, potentially one of the most exciting regattas of the season, a great curtain raiser, which would have a good chance to provide images reminiscent of the ones which emerged from the big days off Cartagena, where the boats surfed spectacularly on, and through, lumpy swells several metres high.

Barcelona, in July

Barcelona will host the third event of the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit between the 20th and the 25th of July. At this time the Catalan capital city enjoys great thermal winds of the southwest, known as Garbí.

As well as the pleasant summer weather conditions, Barcelona is the perfect showcase for the Circuit, richly endowed with the experience and infrastructure of a city which holds many sailing competitions in Spain including the 1992 Olympic Sailing Regatta. The 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit event benefits from the full participation of the city hall in the organization of the events which will ensure a lively public village while the races take place on the water. And of course as a backdrop, the major European city needs no introduction as a cultural, architectural, culinary and nightlife capital that few can rival.

Audi MedCup Circuit’s Schedule 2010:

• Event 1: Cascais (Portugal), 11th to 16th of May
• Event 2: Marseille (France), 15th to 20th of June
• Event 3: Barcelona (Spain), 20th to 25th of July
• Event 4: Cartagena (Spain), 24th to 29th of August
• Event 5: Cagliari (Italy), 20th to 25th of September

The Volvo Ocean Race had been seen as a platform to deliver value to the Emirates, the team’s long time sponsor in the absence of a recognisable America’s Cup campaign.  According to the most recent news,  the Volvo race has been ditched for two reasons: it was proving too expensive and was superfluous to the team’s needs. Emirates Team NZ are committed to a TP52 campaign in the Audi Med Cup and the new Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Dalton hopes that with the DOG Match now happening in Valencia, the future of Emirates Team NZ in the America’s Cup will be more certain, once a winner is determined. Notwithstanding more court cases and the lack of wind in Spain, Grant Dalton is hoping to move on. He said:

‘I don’t for a minute discount the possibility of more delays but there’s now, for the first time in a long time, light at the end of the tunnel. ‘There’s a future for the team beckoning within days really. we are still here’ and ‘ready to race again’ once ‘there’s certainty in the future of the event’.

‘Above all else that is what we want, certainty. The best result for us is for the winner [of the deed-of-gift match] to announce a Challenger of Record and say the defender will enter into dialogue with the challengers. That’s about the best result we can hope for.’

‘My focus needs to now turn to raising money and getting the team back together again. My heart is still in a Volvo but it would have been a massive distraction and the board felt we needed to change course.

Torbjorn Tornqvist, founder and CEO said:

“We’ve built a solid team and have enjoyed racing in the TP52 and RC44 classes to date. We are now looking forward to the Louis Vuitton Trophy – it is an excellent opportunity for Artemis to compete against the world’s best sailing teams.”

The team for the Louis Vuitton Trophy will include, Paul Cayard (USA) and Team Manager Jared Henderson (NZL), Terry Hutchinson and Morgan Larson (USA) who have joined Artemis as helmsman and tactician respectively.

Cayard said:

“Artemis has been on a continuous path of growth in the sport of sailing over the past four years. The Louis Vuitton Trophy is a new challenge for our team. We have a lot of respect for all the teams that we will face in Nice and look forward to the opportunity to race against them.”

Representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club the Artemis crew for the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice includes: Paul Cayard (skipper/ strategist), Jared Henderson (team manager/pit), Terry Hutchinson (helmsman), Morgan Larson (tactician), Andy Fethers (bow), Phil Jameson (mid bow), David Brooke (mast), Craig Monk (grinder), Matthew Welling (grinder), Robbie Naismith (trimmer), Morgan Trubovich (trimmer), Ian Baker (grinder), Marco Constant (trimmer), Sean Clarkson (traveler), Kevin Hall (navigator), Magnus Augustson (grinder) and Rodney Daniel (runners).

You can follow Artemis Racing on Twitter…

The new ‘super-team’ continues the recent trend of a team becoming a platform for its partners and sponsors across several events – maximising returns while sharing costs. The team plans to compete in the Louis Vuitton Trophy as well as the World Match Racing Tour. They will also campaign an RC44 and a TP52.

The German connection also brings a new partner to the team. Sportswear giant Adidas has been announced as a sponsor of the new look team today.

For those who know their sports business, the arrival of Adidas into sailing is not a big surprise. The company’s rivalry with Puma dates back to when two brothers from the same family founded the competing companies in 1948. Since Puma’s high profile launch into sailing with the last Volvo Ocean Race, it was perhaps only a matter of time before we saw Adidas enter the market.

Stephane Kandler, K-Challenge’s CEO :

“This is an important step in our history after 20 years of investment and involvement in sailing first through K-Yachting our charter company created in 1989 and then K-Challenge who has participated in the last America’s Cup. With our assets from the last America’s Cup, our common experience and all the other people working with us (like the French Sailing Federation, FFV), ALL4ONE is a trustful and powerful platform offering new opportunities for sponsors in our sport. And we are proud that our historical partners Canal+ and Saint Honoré watches are now joined by adidas, which is one of the biggest brands in sport.”

Jochen Schümann, Skipper and Sport Director :

“ALL4ONE will build a new sailing team platform based on inspiration, respect, innovation and performance.

We have set our priorities on four international sailing circuits – Louis Vuitton Trophy, TP52, RC44, World Match Racing Tour – around which we build our team, perform against best sailors of the world and be present for our partners and visible for public all year around.

ALL4ONE is very proud to announce that adidas has already joined the team as Official Supplier. Hermann Deininger, CMO, adidas Sport Style Division says:

“Jochen Schümann, is a world class sailor who has been part of the adidas family for the past 30 years. He works closely with us providing significant support, testimonials and advice to test and develop our perfectly crafted adidas Porsche Design Sport sailing range. We are extremely proud & grateful to have him share his and his team’s sailing expertise, allowing us to continuously perfect our sailing specific products.”

Visit our website : www.all4onechallenge.com

Guests Will Be Allowed on Board in 2010

The Audi Med Cup is one of the more commercialized racing series out there and as such is concious of budgets for teams and return on investment for sponsors. The event has announced a series of changes for 2010 aimed at achieving those aims and they estimate that the annual budget for a TP52 campaign with a chance of winning the title will be around €1.78m.

The Audi Med Cup have also borrowed a trick from the iShares Cup playbook and will offer the chance for VIP guests to sail aboard the boats during racing. The series says:

In order to enhance the commercial return to sponsors or to offer owners and crews the chance to take their private guests out racing, there will now be one guest spot on board the TP52 Series and the GP42 Series boats in each race of each regatta. The guests will effectively be right in the middle of the action, each and every race. Crews may choose to change guests each race if they wish, but the clear requirement is that they can have no influence on the performance of the boats, keeping their legs and torso inside, sailing towards the back of the boat.

The budget cuts will come from a series of measures that shouldn’t have any effect on the quality of the racing or the spectacle. They include:

• The weight limit for ‘active’ TP52 crew has been reduced to 1050kgs, down from 1273kgs this season. The savings are estimated to be €30-50,000 per season.
• The number and type of sails has been reduced again for the 2010 season. Expensive masthead Code Zero type headsails will not be allowed. Only 15 sails can be measured in for the season (against the 19 + 3 allowed in 2009), and only four jibs and four spinnakers can be carried on board. Exotic, costly materials have been outlawed for spinnakers which can now only be manufactured in woven polyester or nylon.
• Practise Days will be reduced.

The series have estimated guideline budgets, which represent, typically, both ends of the spectrum, to campaign a GP42 or a TP52

• The budget range for a GP42 is between €467,000 for a charter program covering all five regattas to about €992,000 for a full new build winning boat program, based on selling the boat at season’s end.
• For the TP52 the entry level program is reckoned on being around €800,300 for the season or €1.78m to achieve a potentially winning program based on a new build boat which is sold at season’s end.

Considering there is almost a million bucks difference between the low and high budget for a TP52, does spending the extra money make all the difference? Afonso Domingos (POR) skipper of Bigamist 7 :

” There has been no comparison between our budget and that of other teams. But we have proved certainly this season that even with a small investment it is possible to win races and to be challenging regularly for first place. This was the season where we did spend a little more, with a new boat (to us, the former Platoon), some new sails and some more professional sailors, but that has led to fifth overall and eight race wins over the season (second to Emirates Team New Zealand in victories in the TP52 fleet).”

But having such a small domestic market makes things tough if you want to compete on the world stage – especially in a sport as expensive as sailing. Grant Dalton, head of Emirates Team New Zealand then needs to look outside of NZ to find sponsorship budgets for the team’s upcoming projects.

The lack of certainty about financial backing makes it hard to plan campaigns. It seems that the money will determine if the team go racing in the Volvo Ocean Race or the Audi Med Cup, not the team.

In an artilce in the New Zealand Herald over the weekend, Dalton said that whether or not the team would consider the Volvo Race would depend on money.

He is quoted as saying:

“Money first, money second, and money third. If it was to happen, we would have to have two groups. Emirates Team New Zealand would continue its focus as an America’s Cup team but that doesn’t preclude us from being involved in the Volvo.”

However, time is short – it is understood a New Zealand entry and a boat have to be confirmed by December 18 – hence Dalton’s shopping trip overseas looking for sponsors and backers.

However, even if the Volvo bid doesn’t come off, the Louis Vuitton offers an exciting future, as does Emirates Team NZ’s continued involvement in the Med Cup and the TP52 yachts.

“I don’t think any of us quite realised how valuable the Med Cup would be,” said Dalton. “It helped develop the team and combinations and raised our profile and that of our sponsors, particularly in Europe.”

The full article can be read here…

The team went into survival mode in 2009, trying to keep the core group of talent together while Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli sidelined all-comers for the America’s Cup. The team helped Richard Branson out with his trans-Atlantic record crossinng in ‘Speedboat’ (renamed Virgin Money for the occasion), and Ben Ainslie competed in a couple of World Match Racing Tour Events.

Now with the new environmental evangelism behind them, TeamOrigin will once again become a ‘superteam’ – maximising their sponsors returns by competing in multiple Big-Boat events in 2010 and beyond.

TeamOrigin Team Director, Mike Sanderson confirmed that the team are working hard on their plans to join the Audi MedCup Circuit for next season. The entry of the UK team may convince Emirates Team New Zealand to return to the TP52 series for 2010. The chance for both teams to benchmark against each other may justify the NZ team’s continued involvement in the series, despite their winning 2009 boat being up for sale.

Sanderson said:

” We are definitely going to do it unless anything changes. We are basing that decision on what we know of the circuit for next year. I have spoken to just about everyone I can who is on the Circuit and they sound committed to going ahead next season.”

“We have to make the decision whether to buy an existing boat and make it fast or build to the new rule and so we are going through that process just now.”

” We would love to do a new boat. We have to make the decision very soon but it ticks all the boxes, utilising more of our team, our design capability. But the flip side of that is that we have to believe it will be competitive in the future. It appears this season that the three new boats have a slight edge and so we really want to be able to at least reach that pace.”

” At the moment we are just inside that window (to build new) and so we would have to go at it full noise to get there, we are just deciding just now what the best way will be.”

” Juan (Kouyoumdjian) is working on it just now. He’s looking at it. But to build new, if it makes sense, is our first choice because it uses so many aspects of our team’s abilities.”

” We are definitely very excited about being on the MedCup Circuit next year. For sure.”

Quantum’s Living the Dream competition is a great case study. Through luck or design, the team ended up with Katie Burns as the winner of the chance to crew on the TP52 – a woman with an interesting story and as it happens a great screen presence. Those following along on the team’s facebook page or youtube channel will have seen some of the best in-depth, behind the scenes coverage of a sailing event in a long time.

This video is a great case in point…

But that’s not all. Quantum Racing shows that integration is the key and funky new media sites is only one part of the communications mix. One of the only – if not THE only – mass market television sailing shows is Mainsail on CNN hosted by Shirley Robertson. This interview is interesting for many reasons and worth a watch.