In a recent episode of the Yacht Business & Sailing Podcast, Mark Turner (formerly of OC Sport and the Ocean Race) discussed the changing nature of sponsored sailing campaigns. Gone are the days of sponsors just being the wallet so that people can go yachting. Teams and programs need to attach themselves to a larger cause, whether it be the… Read More »Money vs Impact in Sailing
SailGP is a relatively new sailing series that is, as the name suggests, modelled on Formula 1 motorsport. Developed by America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts and leveraging the broadcast technology developed for recent America’s Cup events managed by ORACLE Racing and funded by Larry Ellison. Powered by Nature™, SailGP is adrenaline-fuelled racing as eight teams go head-to-head in iconic venues… Read More »SailGP
2023 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the first historic Whitbread Round the World Sailing Race. The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is designed to commemorate the event using the same technology that was used by competing teams in the original race. Like the modern Ocean Race (previously known as the Volvo Ocean Race), the OGR is a team racing event… Read More »The Ocean Globe Race
The WMRT was established in 2000, bringing together match racing competitions and regattas into a World Champion event. Match Racing is the format used by the America’s Cup and many former World Match Racing Tour champions have gone on to win the ‘Auld Mug’. The Tour differs from many other sailing events in that teams compete in boats provided by… Read More »World Match Racing Tour
Previously known as the ‘Volvo Ocean Race’, the Ocean Race is the latest version of the Whitbread Round the World Sailing Race first run in 1973. It is a team-based offshore event with multiple stop-overs. The next edition of the race will be the first without Volvo’s involvement, and is scheduled to start in October of 2022. The route has… Read More »The Ocean Race
Ken Read’s Keynote at the World Yacht Racing Forum in 2013 was a big hit. Below are the comments he made about raising sponsorship and what sailors and events still have to learn. Clearly this is a big part of what we are talking about at this event. Sponsorship is critical at the elite level of our sport. There is… Read More »Ken Read on Sailing Sponsorship
The 2012 World Yacht Racing Forum opened with a discussion around sponsorship activation. Activation, or utilisation, is the activity undertaken by companies to actually generate the returns from sponsorship. This article first appeared on YachtRacing.biz The panel featured; Josephine Edwall-Bjorklund, Senior VP Corporate Communications for SCA – who recently announced they would back an all female team in the Volvo… Read More »Brands Talk Sailing Sponsorship Activation
The annual pro sailing series are coming to the end of their 2012 seasons. It’s a time of year when we can look back at the previous 12 months and also reflect about how the next year might be different. In 2008, we asked Mark Turner, the man behind the Extreme Sailing Series how he saw the ‘state of the… Read More »Mark Turner Interview
“The path to being an expert can be easy or hard.” Loick Peyron at the 2010 World Yacht Racing Fourm It’s difficult to do justice to the speech that Loick Peyron gave to the delegates of the World Yacht Racing Forum in Estoril. The performance was one that showed the sport of sailing does indeed have personalities to rival any… Read More »Loick Peyron’s Sailing Wisdom
The following article was first published in 2008. Many of the topics are still current and many of the challenges still exist more than 10 years on. Mark Turner, CEO of OC Group talks to David Fuller about the broader trends in the business of yacht racing. Professional yacht racing is a relatively new phenomenon. The idea that the sport… Read More »Mark Turner Interview