Yachting News 1st October 2009

Oct 1st 2009
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Greetings yachties

Social Media – fad or revolution – numbers don’t lie

Bavaria – That sinking feeling

Bank Sarasin RC 44 Portoroz Cup – Paul Cayard wins

Cayard Report,

Des Top News,

Sailing News.TV,

Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez,

ISAF – Making Waves latest edition,

Superyacht News,

Enjoy

Pilote Media Launches Social Media BootCamp for Business.

In case you haven’t got the message yet, social media is important. It might be a fad, but its a fad that thousands of businesses are using to generate revenue. Even if social media is a fad, it’s not for kids and it’s not trivial, but it is new and therefore easily misunderstood.

Sailing as a sport, and as a business, has an opportunity. Never before have the tools existed to target and engage the audience that you want to do business with in such an efficient and measurable way. Don’t think that this is about technology – it’s not. It’s about Marketing and customers and best practise.

I’ve been tracking attitudes towards social media and emerging technologies in the marine industry for a while now, and sadly, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. There are some stand-out exceptions – like Quantum Racing, but in the main, the marine industry and the sport of sailing, has not grasped the tools being used by other sports and are missing out on their share of voice.

Amongst those who do use some of these tools there is some confusion as to why business hasn’t adopted some of these practises more quickly, but in the main, these people are early adopters. For those who are head down in the day to day running of a business, especially in uncertain times, it is not always easy to get your head around the opportunities and implications of new ideas. One of the problems though, is that social media has been sold as technology and is therefore seen as the domain of the IT crowd. Actually, these tools are for marketing, PR and corporate communications professionals and more and more, those in business development.

So Pilote Media, the publishers of www.yachtsponsorship.com have created a Social Media for Business Bootcamp Seminar to help demystify some of the technobabble around social media and provide some real-world tips on how to leverage the tools available.

The seminar will be in London on October the 14th from 9am – 12pm. For more information see the event page.

Yachtyakka – The entertainment channel for yachties.

yachting news from around the world and around the corner

Bavaria to be sold again; investor losses approach €1bn

By IBI Magazine/Arlene Baxter

Private equity firm Bain Capital is expected to hand over the helm of German sailboat builder Bavaria Yachtbau to two distressed-debt investors, according to reports appearing in the financial press this week. US-based investors Oaktree Capital Management and Anchorage Advisors are thought likely to take equal equity stakes in Bavaria Yachtbau after buying its debt for a total of about €300m, reported Private Equity News.

Bain Capital bought Bavaria in 2007 at the height of the private equity boom for a reported €1.3bn, and is said to have put €400m of equity from its own funds into the deal. The remainder of the deal was backed by a €900m debt package with €600m arranged by Goldman Sachs and €300m from Germany’s Dresdner Bank, which was subsequently acquired by its rival Commerzbank in August 2008.

Oaktree acquired about a third of Bavaria’s debt last year at discounts of up to 35 per cent of nominal value from Goldman Sachs when it began offloading its debt in early 2008. German newspapers reported that Bavaria was in financial difficulties in July, at which point Commerzbank and Oaktree agreed to defer interest on loan payments, setting in motion the negotiations for a debt-for-equity swap that culminated this week. Industry insiders believe that the final tranches of debt acquired by Oaktree and Anchorage were at well below 30 per cent of nominal value.

more here

more news from IBI here

Photo copyright Ales Fevzer RC 44 Class

Paul Cayard and his new team Katusha win the Bank Sarasin RC 44 Portoroz Cup match race

The American sailor won the best of three final series against Karol Jablonski’s Organika. Ray Davies and Pieter Heerema finish third onboard No Way Back.

September 30, 2009 – Paul Cayard and his new team Katusha surprised everyone – and himself – in the Bank Sarasin RC 44 Portoroz Cup match race series, dominating the event and winning the best of three final against Karol Jablonski’s Organika. Katusha is the latest RC 44 (number 22), just out of the Pauger boatyard. The team is also brand new and had never sailed together under Cayard’s leadership. No Way Back (Ray Davies & Pieter Heerema) finishes third ahead of Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (Jose Maria Ponce), Artemis (Dean Barker) and Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton).

The day started with a “dead or alive” match between the local team Modri Gaj and Team Austria. At the helm of Modri Gaj, Gasper Vincec managed to close the door at the start, kicking the Austrians out and taking control of the race to win it.

The other semi-finals saw today’s most spectacular matches, including an aggressive fight between Dean Barker’s Artemis and Sébastien Col’s Ceeref. Both teams arrived together at the top mark and engaged in an endless dial up. Stuck on windward, Seb Col tried to regain control of the situation by jibing the top mark. Both teams soon after arrived together – but on opposite tacks – by the arrival line. They luffed each other until they faced the wind, their spinnakers flapping in the wind and twisting around the headstays. Artemis got a penalty and actually benefited from it, pursuing its turn, untangling its spinnaker and crossing the line a few meters ahead of a very disappointed team Ceeref.

Five groups of two teams came out of the semi-finals, with Katusha and Organika on top, followed by Islas Canarias Puerto Calero and No Way Back.

Both Katusha and No Way Back managed to win their first match but then lost the second, hence maintaining the suspense. Cayard and Jablonski started the decisive race on split tacks, with Cayard going to the right and Jablonski forced to the left of the course. The first crossing confirmed that Cayard’s choice was the right one: Katusha was comfortably leading the race and sailed to victory without being threatened.

No Way Back also had a fairly comfortable last race against the Spaniards, controlling the entire race to grab the third place of the podium.

The fleet regatta starts tomorrow. It promises to be intense: the teams that were usually in the middle of the pack are now at the top whilst the newcomers have proved how good they are. As for the favourites of the event, who haven’t obtained the results that they wanted in the match race, they know what to do in the coming days…

Photo copyright Ales Fevzer RC 44 Class

They said:

Paul Cayard, helmsman, Katusha: “It is obviously a great day for our new team Katusha; we certainly didn’t expect such a good result and it is a perfect way to start in this class. This victory is a tribute to the work done by the people who have prepared the boat over the past weeks. They have done it with a great attention to detail. We also adapted our sailing style to the fact that we are a new team, and avoided getting too involved in close match racing. When the situation allowed, we just did our route without always controlling the opposition. It is risky but it paid off well.”

Karol Jablonski, helmsman, Organika: “I am extremely happy, we are getting there and this second place is excellent for us. When I started with this team in Lanzarote, I knew that it would take some time. Cayard obviously did a great job; he positioned his boat well and managed to go to the most favourable places on the course. For sure, I am sad that we didn’t win. But in a way it’s good: it leaves us some margin for improvement ahead of the Gold Cup.”

Jose Maria Ponce, helmsman, Islas Canarias Puerto Calero: “This is the beginning of a new era for us. We have been fighting all along and all the matches have been very close. We have proved that we can beat the best teams; it is a great confidence boost for us.”

Mike Reardon, Modri Gaj: “I am delighted, this is great fun. Obviously, we are beginners in this Class and we are learning a lot. This morning, Paul Cayard gave us some advice and this proved very helpful today. He has been very good to us.”

Match-race, final results:

(Ranking, name of team, helmsman)

1) Team Katusha, Paul Cayard
2) Organika, Karol Jablonski
3) No Way Back, Ray Davies, Pieter Heerema
4) Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, José Maria Ponce
5) Artemis, Dean Barker
6) Team Aqua, Cameron Appleton
7) Ceeref, Sébastien Col
BMW ORACLE Racing, Russell Coutts
9) Team Sea Dubai, Markus Wieser
10) Modri Gaj, Gasper Vincec
11) Team Austria, Christian Binder

Bank Sarasin – RC44 Portoroz Cup

Paul Cayard
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Katusha wins the Match Racing! It could not have gone better for our first two days of racing in the RC44 Class.

We had a one race match against Puerto Calero in the semi final first thing today. The wind was light and the two boats were never more than 3 boat lengths apart.

Then we faced Organica in the finals, a best 2 out of 3. We won the first race wire to wire. Organica had a slightly better start in the second race and they went all the way left, while we went all the way right. Left was far better and it never was much of a contest.

That set up the race for all the marbles. We led back in the prestart and slowed Organica down nicely. Then we sheeted on and took the favored right side of the line and race course. It was a bit close up the first leg, but we were always in control. They then gybed away down the run and we just sailed the pressure and stretched nicely. That was pretty much it. The last lap was more of a delivery, which was just fine with the Katusha Team.

All happy here. Tomorrow the fleet racing starts. All boats must have an amateur helmsman and we have a good one…Pieter Taselaar who just won the Melges 32 Worlds in Porto Cervo last week.

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PREPARATIONS BEGIN AT 8AM; SUMMER CONDITIONS FOR RACING

September 30, 2009

Another gorgeous ‘summer’ day for participants as racing continues for the 2009 edition of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. With 296 entries in this unique, annual rendez-vous of both classic and modern boats, today the waters off Saint-Tropez were filled with yachts of all shapes and sizes.

Today’s racing conditions for the Traditional classes saw 10-15 knots of winds during racing. The wind came from the Southwest at the start, the first of which was at 12.08 with the last one at 12.54 for the Traditional yachts.

After the start, the course for the classics went in the direction of Pointe des Issambres and then headed towards the Wally start area, off Pamplelonne Beach, continuing in the direction of the Cap de Saint-Tropez. By 15.30 the majestic classics yachts were rounding the final course mark, La Basse Rabiou, located at the exit of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, before beginning a long upwind trek towards the finish-line.

more here