Oman Air Sponsorship of Majan Sailing Record Pays Off.

Savvy sailing sponsors know that return on invesment (ROI) for sailing can be increased by using the asset – the boat – for as many days in as many events as possible. Multiple boats, with different capabilities allows you to spread your sponsorship across multiple territories and different audiences.

The concept of the sailing ‘Superteam’ has been emerging for a few years now, partly because of insecurity surrounding the America’s Cup, but also because sports marketing people have recognised the benefits of multiple platforms. Teams like Emirates Team NZ and Groupama compete with multiple boats in multiple competitions and gain huge value as a result.

Over the last couple of years, Oman Sail has been steadily building into a real force in sailing. The most recent example of the team’s success has been a demolition of the Round Britain and Ireland record by Sidney Gavignet (FRA) onboard OMAN AIR MAJAN.  The A100 trimaran broke the existing record held by Thomas Coville by a massive 1 day 15 hours 30 minutes and 44 seconds.

This incredible achievement also means Sidney has beaten the existing fully crewed record time by 1 hour and 7 seconds. This record was set by Steve Fosset onboard Playstation in 2002.

Philippe Georgiou, Chief Officer, Corporate Affairs, Oman Air, the sponsors of the boat said:

“As part of Oman’s Air sponsorship of Oman Sail at the Route du Rhum, the iconic sail regatta which will take place at the end of October, we are excited to be witnessing that all the preparatory stages in the run-up to the race get under way. Following the display of the 100-meter Arabian Trimaran Oman Air during Cowes Week at the Isle of Wight, world famous skipper Sydney Gavignet now readies himself for the single-handed Round Britain and Ireland raid and his attempt to break yet another record. We at Oman Air are both proud and thrilled to be part of the Route du Rhum, this very special event which offers us a great opportunity to promote our airline offering and its unique destination, the Sultanate of Oman.”

Oman Air Majan is built by BoatSpeed.

Image Credit: Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

More Sailing Record News…

Oman Air Sponsor Oman Sail’s Majan To Build Brand in Europe.

You might think that there would be more airlines involved with the sponsorship of sailing. At the top end of the sport, airfares and air travel make up a large part of a professional sailing team’s expenses. The rise of sailing as a sports-tourism driver should also help make the case for more airlines to back the sport – after all, what is the point of promoting a destination if you don’t know how to get there.

As the Oman Sail project moves into its next phase of promoting the sultanate as a tourism destination, Oman Air has announced that it will sponsor the programme’s Arabian 100 trimaran – Majan.

The initial platform for the sponsorship will be the 2010 Route de Rhum is a transatlantic single-handed 4,000-mile yacht race that takes place every four years. Most of the media exposure will be in France, which suits Oman Air who are trying to increase their brand awareness in the European market, building on Oman Air’s services to France, Germany, and the UK. From September 2009, Oman Air began direct flights between Paris and Muscat. The sponsorship aligns Oman Air, Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism’s marketing strategies in Europe, with all three taking an active role in the Route du Rhum project.

Said Peter Hill, CEO of Oman Air said:

“With Oman Air’s ongoing initiatives in promoting Oman as a unique destination throughout Europe, our sponsorship of the Route de Rhum blends well with our efforts to both position Oman as a destination of choice and Oman Air as an exclusive brand amongst our target market in France. The timing of the event coincides perfectly with France’s premier travel trade show (Top Resa) which takes place towards the end of September, giving Oman Air, Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism the perfect opportunity to actively promote Oman as a business, trade and tourism destination.”

There is no doubt that the event is big in France, however it is a bit of a stretch to believe the claim by race organisers that

…the race is held second in popularity to the FIFA World Cup by the French Media.

David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail said

“We are delighted to have Oman Air as Majan’s sponsor as she will symbolise Oman’s vitality and innovation as she competes in one of the most prestigious and challenging offshore races in the world. Within the Sailing fraternity, we have spent two years promoting Oman as a destination. This is now amplified with Oman Air on board.”

Assembled in Salalah and launched in the summer of 2009, Majan is a 105ft trimaran classed as one of the fastest offshore multihulls in the world; she was given the honour of being named by HM Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.

The racing yacht took part in the Arabian Tour in 2009 with stopovers in the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Majan also crossed the Indian Ocean in the 5 Capes Race early this year with stopovers in the Maldives, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia and India before returning to Oman.

More Oman Sail News…

Vodafone Sponsor Trimaran to Promote Coverage and Speed.

It’s perhaps surprising that mobile phone network operators don’t use yacht racing more as a promotional tool. With the exception of Telefonica in the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, it seems that network operators get more value from football, rugby, cricket and music and entertainment sponsorships. Now Vodafone in New Zealand have decided that sailing would be a good thing to promote marine coverage and network performance.

Vodafone has taken naming sponsorship of the ORMA trimaran previously Team G3, to launch ‘TeamVodafone Sailing’ with the boat’s major rebranding about to start. The associations of speed are important, but there is also the old fashioned billboard factor that will give the brand presence in one of the most well known racing harbours in the world.

Vodafone’s Director of Sales Grant Hopkins says:

“We have invested heavily in our Extended 3G network to cover 97% of where kiwis live, work and play – and a whole lot of kiwis play on the water. Whether you want to send a PXT of your award-winning snapper to a mate, keep the emails at bay or in the case of TeamVodafone check the weather to be in the best position for the wind, this partnership is about showing boaties you can still use all of our great data services at fast speeds on the water.”

Moored just 100 metres from the Vodafone HQ at the Viaduct in Auckland harbour, TeamVodafone is the fastest mobile billboard in town. As well as racing in Auckland, TeamVodafone intends to compete in numerous regattas and races in Oceania – Coastal Classic, Sydney- Hobart, Auckland – Fiji to name a few…and will challenge a few records getting there and back. Watch out for it overtaking the Waiheke ferry in the Auckland harbour.

In August next year TeamVodafone will also enter the ‘Round Australia Race’ – the last time it was raced it was won was by kiwi’s Sir Peter Blake and Mike Quilter in Steinlager 1, back in 1988.

TeamVodafone Sailing is owned and skippered by Simon Hull with an experienced professional crew. Simon has owned and campaigned a succession of race boats, the most recent the Transpac 52, V5 – recent wins include the Coastal Classic yacht race in 2007 and 2008, and the Bay of Islands Race Week in 2009.

Simon commented

“It is fantastic to have a brand as strong as Vodafone to back the team. Bringing one of the fastest sailing boats on the planet all the way down here from France has been a dream of mine for some time. It takes sailing here to a new level, and Vodafone’ support enables us to go for the records that we know she is capable of.

Hopkins ends:

Of course this partnership is not just about coverage, let’s face it this boat is fast, it’s innovative and it will push the boundaries to break records – you can’t get more Vodafone than that.

More New Zealand Sailing news.

Another Day. Another Class. Another Race.

Sailing and motorsport are similar in the sense that anyone (with enought cash) can just decide one day to create a new class and a new series. As if there weren’t already a bewildering choice of boats and events competing for sailors, sponsorship money and media exposure, promoters continue to try and carve out niches.

This week it has been announced that a Swiss company will attempt to resurect the MOD70, a trimaran design based on the ORMA 60 class. It’s been tried before, but last time, sponsors weren’t interested. Now the new owners plan to manage and promote the MOD 70′ multihull professional circuit comprising a crewed, multi-leg round the world race and a European championship comprising a mixture of offshore and inshore races.

Meanwhile, the OC Group are trying to create a different series with 100ft One Design triamrans like the one built for Oman Sail.

The planned MOD 70 calendar for a new circuit would be a fully crewed round the world race from October 2013 to April 2014 and repeated on a 3 year cycle. In addition an annual European Championship would try to find space in the busy summer months, starting in June 2012.

As with all these things, “the aim of the class is to be international and elite, attracting the world’s very best sailors.”

But haven’t we heard it all before? In 2007 Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard announced plans to create The World Sailing League (WSL). A dozen teams would compete in identical, state-of-the-art 70ft catamarans, with events held at premier sailing locations around the world.

No doubt, the new management team have done their homework and have a business plan that makes it all stack up. Perhaps they know something about the state of the sponsorship market that we don’t. Perhaps they have in-depth consumer data that shows a huge pent up demand for more round the world racing, however it is highly unlikely that such a series would attract new sponsors or viewers to sailing. Therefore the only place to get backing is to cannibalise existing programs.

Pro-sailing has to change. Instead of proliferation, now is a time for consolidation. Yacht Racing promoters need to think about the sport as a market, with products and segments and consumers. Moreover, promoters who are pushing basically the same product need to think about the bigger picture and instead of breaking a niche into smaller and smaller parts, combine to provide a compelling product to the widest audience possible.

GGYC Issues Statement: Ellison and Bertarelli in Talks.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club and BMW ORACLE have released a statement, 5 days after the New York court of appeal awarded the title of ‘Challenger of Record’ in their favour. The team principals; Larry Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli are talking to each other, trying to come to a deal that will work for everyone. The statement reads:

The Golden Gate Yacht Club and its team, BMW ORACLE Racing, remain committed to negotiate with the Defender, Société Nautique de Genève/Alinghi, a conventional mutual consent protocol for the next America’s Cup that would involve all teams.

This follows the April 2 decision of the New York State Court of Appeals confirming the Golden Gate Yacht Club as the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup.

BMW ORACLE Racing’s owner, Larry Ellison, and the President of Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli, have communicated with each other since the court ruling.

At this stage the club believes it is best to keep communications between the parties private in the interests of reaching a successful conclusion as quickly as possible.

It seems crazy that it took a panel of judges to create a situation where these guys would sit down and talk about the future of the Amerca’s Cup.

Both have a lot to gain, but perhaps more to lose from this round of talks. Neither man would want to go down in history as the guy who wrecked the America’s Cup for all time.

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