Paul Cayar
Rob Weiland
It hardly ever rains where we sail
Organising big boat regattas without a palm tree in sight seems doomed to fail. With the sun and blue sky as other desired features from there it gets more complicated to put a finger on what makes a successful event, let alone a successful regatta series. Simply asking ‘Where would you like to race
next year?’ or ‘What would make you come back to our event next year?’ seems like a good approach if you are not selling a particular club or location, a position 52 Super Series is in. But quite honestly it is not as easy as that because you are most likely to get a real answer only if you ask from August onwards, so when owners traditionally start thinking of and making first plans for ‘next year’. Why Copa del Rey is such an interesting – reliable – event for those in the marine business is that all of a sudden next year comes into sight as if a magical switch has been flipped each year. For club events this autumn timing works, as their event dates
and locations are fixed. Then adjusting what is on offer, the menu, so to speak, to the client’s wishes is still very possible when it comes to race format, regatta management, choice of staff and the certainly important social menu… the parties. For clubs the more longterm concerns are sponsors, sponsor
contracts and relations with authorities and marinas. As the number and quality of entries are not guaranteed there always is an element of uncertainty in longterm deals made with event sponsors and other stakeholders. For sure, it makes quite a difference to a sponsor whether there are 50 or 100 boats in an event and whether there are a good number of boats and sailors of name and fame or that it is a family affair. Classes tend to have a number of their own events each year, together forming a series for an overall trophy. Quite a few classes
30 SEAHORSE
use existing club events for this, in which the class has a start – the easy way as it keeps funding and organisation to a minimum and the events generally offer a quality, certainly on the social side, that is impossible to match for class events. Also, it avoids the hard work of finding sponsors... and pleasing them. The class management will then try to get all the ‘ducks in a row’
on a nice dock close to the clubhouse, find parking for trailers, cars and containers, create the class start in the circle and under the race management that suits best (if there are options) to establish a bit of visibility and organise a class party or daily cocktails… and ‘Bob’s your uncle’, as they say. If nicely played both host club and class benefit from the
co-operation and after a few years you only have to be careful not to rely too much on past performance as too much routine quickly bores and makes us lazy. Clubs like this symbiosis but also soon rely on it and can be
really disappointed if a class reschedules to break the pattern. Fair communication and ample warning in case of a change of plans generally keep it civilised. In the end the product has to be the main attraction, not the PR – you cannot sail or party on words. It gets much more complicated as soon as a class organises
its own events or, the alternative, an event organiser builds its events around a class. The event organiser can have various reasons to do so. Commercial reasons, such as if the boatyard producing the class boats is the organiser, or perhaps the distributor of the class boats. Also, commercial interests exist where the event is an organiser’s main activity. Or, the opposite, an organisation born out of necessity or lack of alternative, like the 52 Super Series where in 2013 three TP52 owners felt this was the best way to get the class of boats they liked to race and owned back on its feet. They certainly achieved their goal but as great as it is to have
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