Promoting Sailing – The Importance of Bloggers.

July 20, 2009 by admin

The effect of the printing press on the world was a documented big deal, but history may show that it was nothing when compared with the advent and advance of the internet as a mechanism to disseminate content instantly around the world. While the printed page and book allowed the number of readers to be expanded massively, the emerging internet allows there to be millions of writers. Where in times of old publishing and broadcasting required huge capital investments, today’s aspiring media mogal need only access to the internet.

I believe that the ability for fans, experts and entrepreneurs to develop new channels and outlets benefits niche sports, but change produces different reactions. Not everyone is ready to accept the new self appointed media.

Inspired by a great series of blogs by Christy Hammond, I decided to ask a few sailing PR people about the importance of bloggers.

Blogging has different meanings to different people, but sailors should understand it better than most. Rather than a captains-log, the word blog is derived from web-log and early examples were not much more than diaries published directly to the internet. Today, blogs can range from 140 characters of ‘what am I doing’, popularised by micro-blogging site Twitter, to online magazines. For the purposes of PR and sport, there are three main types.

* Fan or personal Blogs – produced by individuals who are so passionate about their favourite sport, team or hero that they share their enthusiasm online. Some are humourous, some are critical, some are just an outlet. Many of these fans are highly knowledgable and influential. Sailing has some a couple of big ones like Valencia Sailing, but not so many ‘fan’ blogs.
* Competitor or Team Blogs – Often instigated by sponsor marketing teams who ‘get’ the media more quickly than some PR companies, some sports properties are cutting out the media altogether and publishing straight to fans and stakeholders. The competitor blog, like Mike Golding’s has been one of the things that has made offshore sailing relevant, with recent examples from the Vendee Globe and Volvo Ocean Race making compelling reading.
* Expert or Journalist Blogs – Many publications, especially those published monthly, accentuate their printed opinion with smaller online stories in the form of blogs. These can include ‘personal’ comments by journalists or material that just didn’t make it into the printed edition. Some freelance journalists also publish stories directly to their own sites like Andy Rice’s Sail juice Blog

My question to the great and good of Sailing PR didn’t make a distinction between different kinds of bloggers. I was just curious to know how important they are to the promotion of sailing.

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ERIC SHARP’S BLOG

N.Y. court to rule on rules for America’s Cup challenge

BY ERIC SHARP • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • July 19, 2009

Two billionaire leaders of America’s Cup teams return to court Tuesday for another round of enhancing their lawyer’s pension plans. This time the big question is whether the Swiss defender, Alinghi, can change the rules secretly without informing the American challenger, BMW-Oracle.
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It got me thinking that if I were American BMW-Oracle boss Larry Ellison, and I really, really wanted beat Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi team next February, I’d build a 100-foot trimaran like the one Ellison launched last spring and sail it around in plain sight of the Swiss, God and everyone.

Next, I’d wait to see what the Swiss built in response, like maybe the wild 100-foot catamaran Alinghi launched on Lake Geneva last week. Then I’d stun everyone by unveiling a second Yankee boat even better than the first.

Of course only a really, really, really rich guy could afford that. So a lot of people wonder why even though he’s been sea-trialing the 100-foot trimaran for weeks.

Ellison still has 60 people working furiously on a mysterious project at the BMW-Oracle yard in Anacortes, Wash.?

I also wonder about the new mast installed recently on BMW-Oracle, about 40 feet taller than the first 160-foot spar. Some crewmen have said the monster trimaran already is make-a-will scary. So is the bigger stick an effort to increase horsepower for light air days or a test rig for a boat we’ve yet to see?

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click the logo for video of the first sail, Cheesezilla.

The latest chatter on Sailing Anarchy here

2009 Newport Bucket Regatta – Images by Cory Silken

Some great off shore sailing ideas on Crew.org

“we never lash a reef in, it has potential to really ruin the sail. pulling the flap to windward usually does the job. I often put a small webb sewn onto the luff about half a meter back but still on the reinforced area so I can contain the luff especially with boltropes. With that and the leech pick up then the flap pulled to weather you are going to b e right as rain.at norths we sew webbing onto the sail for the ties rather than an eyelet so the webb rips off instead of tearing the sail.
The bigger boats use lazy jacks as there is no way you can manhandel the reefs. Lazy jacks can create major chafe issues (remember speedboats atlantic attempt, reef filled with water then the lazy jacks chafed right thru the sail!) To over come this issue a lot of boats do a stackpack kind of arangement with the lazy jacks going to a bag on the boom which the main sits in. I will post some photos tomorrow. Its a major issue on boats like the open 60s and the guys are continually bailing them out. In the southern ocean on hugo boss we were bailing it once or twice a day when we were hauling ass reaching.”

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Copyright Loris von Siebenthal / RC 44 Class Association

PRESS RELEASE – RC44 Championship Tour – Malcesine RC 44 Cup

Torbjorn Tornqvist and Artemis, fantastic winners of the RC 44 Malcesine Cup

The fight for the podium positions, between Team Aqua, Artemis, BMW ORACLE Racing and No Way back has been fantastic. Showing great stamina, Chris Bake’s squad managed to overcome a backstay breakage to remain in the fight. But Artemis dominated the last race and won the event.

July 12, 2009 – Everyone knew this morning – as the teams were getting ready on the pontoons – that this last day would be a tough one. Indeed, four teams were merely separated by seven points ahead of race 6 and everything remained possible with four more regattas to complete.

Quite unfortunate at times earlier in the week, Torbjorn Tornqvist, Dean Barker and their team on board Artemis started the first race in the middle of the line whilst the provisional leader Team Aqua chose the pin. The racing was very close until Aqua’s runner clip suddenly broke. The loose runner slashed Chris Bake in the back and put an end to their hope of winning this regatta despite the team’s bowman Matt Cassidy climbing up the mast in no time to secure the rig. Unable to hoist a spinnaker, the Aqua boys had no other options than to see Artemis sail away, win the race and take the provisional lead of the event. Team Sea Dubai finished second, proving once again how much progress they have made since the beginning of the year.

Chris Bake later on described the incident as an “adrenaline rush”. It certainly made a strong effect on the team, who won the next two regattas. The top three boats of Race seven (Aqua, BMW ORACLE Racing and Ceeref) crossed the arrival line within two seconds whilst Artemis and Team Sea Dubai were separated by half a boat length in fourth and fifth!

The eighth race – the last before lunch break and the final race – turned into a spectacular Aqua show, the team from the UAE winning the regatta with a massive lead over Ceeref and Artemis. At this stage and ahead of the last race, Team Aqua had a 2 points advantage over Artemis and seven over BMW ORACLE Racing with No Way Back one point behind. Everything remained possible!

Both Artemis and Team Aqua took good starts, with a little advantage to Artemis. As soon as the opportunity arose, Tornqvist tacked on top of Aqua, forcing the latter to head back to the shore. This was the (premature) end of the regatta, which turned out to be a procession. After winning the match race event on Thursday, Artemis conquers the fleet regatta and the overall Malcesine Cup. Team Aqua finishes second of both the fleet regatta and the overall ranking, whilst BMW Oracle Racing completes the podium.

The next regatta will take place on September 30 – October 4 in Portoroz (Slovenia).

They said:

Torbjorn Tornqvist, owner, Artemis: “We didn’t look at Team Aqua at all during the last race; we did our own regatta. We tacked over them in the first beat, but we would have done so with any other boat; it was just a race situation. I think that we have found the right balance between speed and height. We also changed our set up after the morning races and this helped our speed a lot.”

Chris Bake, owner, Team Aqua: “When Artemis tacked on us, we knew that we couldn’t win the race. We finish the event in second, which is very good. I am proud of what the team has done. This morning, when we broke our halyard, the guys reacted fantastically. What they achieved is a real testament to their seamanship. Cam is also a great leader; he took the right decisions.”

Russell Coutts, tactician, BMW ORACLE Racing: “This was a great regatta and we have seen some new teams performing very well. Artemis was very fast and dominant during this regatta; Team Aqua also has a little edge over the other teams. But I am very pleased to see that team Austria or Team Sea Dubai performed well. The standard is now really high.”

Markus Wieser, Tactician, Team Sea Dubai: “We are definitely catching up in fleet racing and we are very close from the top guys. Unfortunately, we sometimes penalise ourselves with mistakes, and this is what we will have to work on in the future. We missed the first two events of the season and now we pay the price for this.”

Frank Pong, owner, Team Jelik: “I am very happy with our fifth place in the last race. However, one thing at the time… Now I am going to concentrate on the Asian circuit but I will definitely come back on the RC 44 circuit. I have enjoyed this very much. It is fantastic to sail against the best sailors in the world. At first, I was intimidated but looking back at it I can only recommend to people who hesitate to join this Class.”

Daniel Calero, owner, Islas Canarias Puerto Calero: “Our goal has always been to compete in the 2010 Championship Tour at the top level. In 2009, we said that we would compete in one regatta to check the Class and the people, but we liked it so much that we said “OK, let’s go for two more” and then one more now… But the reality is that if you want to be at the top you need to train very hard and we haven’t done this. We are very competitive people and we like to win so this is not our best result but it was good fun.”

Fleet race, final results after nine races and the double points DHL Trophy (no discard):

(Ranking, name of team, helmsman, results, points (DHL Trophy double points in bold)

1) Artemis, Torbjorn Tornqvist, 1, 9, 10, 5, 1, 1, 1, 4, 3, 1 – 36 points
2) Team Aqua, Chris Bake, 2, 5, 6, 1, 5, 2, 10, 1, 1, 9 – 42 points
3) BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison, 6, 2, 4, 8, 3, 4, 5, 2, 7, 4 – 45 points
4) No Way Back, Pieter Heerema, 7, 3, 2, 4, 7, 3, 3, 7, 4, 6 – 46 points
5) Ceeref, Igor Lah, 3, 4, 12, 7, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 3 – 47 points
6) Team Sea Dubai, Yousef Lahej, 5, 1, 18, 2, 2, 6, 2, 5, 6, 2 – 53 points
7) Team Organika, Maciej Navrocki, 4, 8, 16, 3, 6, 8, 7, 6, 5, 8 – 74 points
Team Austria, René Mangold, 8, 6, 8, 6, 8, 10, 6, 9, 8, 10 – 79 points
9) Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, Daniel Calero, 9, 7, 14, 10, 9, 7, 8, 8, 9, 7 – 88 points
10) Jelik, Frank Pong, 10, 10, dnf 22, 9, 10, 9, 9, 10, 10, 5 – 104 points

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This post is tagged alinghi, booboo, cheesezilla, cheezezilla, Cory Silken, rc44, Sail TV, Sailkarma, scuttlebutt, yachtyakka