RORC Au revoir
This will be the last time I write the RORC Club page as a new CEO has been appointed (more later) and I move on to greater or lesser things but certainly not retirement. The committee have asked me to take a part-time role to oversee the delivery of the Rolex Fastnet Race finish in Cherbourg and support the new CEO as he gets to grips with his new position which I am delighted to do. In looking back at my time in charge I re-read the first Seahorse column I wrote in March 2008 to see if I made any promises… or predictions! I had just stepped off the America’s Cup rollercoaster of coaching
the Spanish America’s Cup team in the last of the Cups raced in IACC 20+ ton lead-mines, into a wholly new role wearing a suit and doing the long commute from the south coast to London… which I had sworn that I would never ever do and which up until that time in my life I had avoided. I wrote in that first edition ‘that what lay under the mantle everyone
In excellent hands I now hand over the tiller to Jeremy Wilton, who was introduced to sailing at a young age when growing up in Australia. When he came to the UK he pursued the sport at a high level, competing in all the RORC offshore races including a Fastnet and only narrowly missing out on an Admiral’s Cup spot to represent Great Britain. But sailing then took a back seat as he forged a 12-year career
with Whitbread working on corporate and beer brand marketing, which included overseeing and developing the company’s broad sponsorship portfolio. This covered two cycles of the Whitbread Round the World Race, then overseeing the sale of the race to Volvo, plus working on the Stella Artois Tennis Championships at Queen’s Club and the creation of what is now the Heineken Champions Cup. Following his time with Whitbread Jeremy founded a marketing
communications agency whose client roster grew to include Stella Artois, Heineken, Boddingtons, Desperados, O’Neill, Rossignol and Costa Coffee. This led him to senior leadership positions
in the world of rugby including over seven years working at Bath Rugby and Wasps. As managing director of Bath Rugby, Jeremy oversaw the operational delivery of all aspects of a rugby institution and played a lead role in significantly increasing the club’s revenue through increased membership, redefining the spectator experi- ence at the club’s home stadium and greatly expanding corporate hospitality. While at Wasps he led the highly successful
but, at the time, controversial move of the club from London to Coventry, following the purchase of the Ricoh Arena, delivering a new community department and building an innovative and suc- cessful community engagement programme. Jeremy also oversaw the creation of a new
CRM/ticketing system and digital strategy which led to a further substantial increase in member - ship and matchday attendance. To add to a long list of professional accom-
Hard to credit that any Finn sailor moves on to steer a 470 without sinking by the stern, but to be fair the retiring RORC CEO was a pretty skinny Finn sailor (inset) back in 1970 when he won the Dunhill Finnfinder scheme. Shrewdly, after success across a range of two-handed dinghies, Warden-Owen (‘Blodwyn’ to friends) switched to 470s where he swapped lasagne breakfasts for dry toast, winning three major titles in the class before falling victim to the UK’s futile boycott of the sailing competition at the Moscow Games
knows as RORC is a club that is active, thriving and leading the way in offshore racing’. And to this day I believe the same is true. During the interview process I had with a group of RORC flag
officers I presented a paper that was the view I had of the club from the outside as a sailor and a member with the title ‘RORC – A Mark of Recognition’. It was my belief, when I was invited to join the club in 1984 not
long after doing my first Fastnet, that joining the RORC and being able to wear the tie was recognition of my being an experienced offshore racer. That phrase is as relevant today and is the reason that the club has a loyal membership of 4,000 – one third of whom are overseas members. During my 12 years I served under six commodores, 30 rear-
commodores and 50 committee members, all active sailors in the offshore racing community. Each commodore brought into the role a unique set of skills and personality which helped shape my work and the direction of the club. A new race, the RORC Caribbean 600, was conceived and developed, a merger with the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Cowes was overseen and negotiated and a controversial move to finish the Rolex Fastnet Race in Cherbourg was navigated… that capped a pretty good innings that I am proud of.
64 SEAHORSE
plishments Jeremy has also spent time at the Jockey Club where he oversaw the Derby and negotiated Investec’s sponsorship of the Derby Festival itself. He has the calm and assured manner of a
man who has seen it all before. I believe that he will enjoy the complexities and multi-faceted role of running a club with considerable inter-
national standing and working with a committee of committed and passionate offshore sailors. The RORC could not be in better hands.
Crew Match It has been a long time in the making but the club recently launched a new version of its time-honoured ‘Crew Match’ system to link owners and crew – and so get more boats racing. The new portal (
crewmatch.rorc.org) is designed around modern communication tools including mobile phones and notebooks and is easy to input information and navigate. Finding competent and committed crew has become increasingly difficult in recent years, so too is finding a boat to race on if you are new to the sport or the sailing area. I have been asked many times to find places for crew to race
in the RORC Caribbean 600, but risking the expense of flying to Antigua and standing on the dockside with your thumb out is too much to ask should it end in failure… even if the weather is perfect for a winter break. RORC Crew Match takes the pain out of the expe- rience for both owner and crew. By being able to check the sailor’s credentials beforehand or to understand the boat owner’s aspira- tions greatly increases the chances of a good outcome for all sides. Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
q
Club page
PAUL WYETH
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106
