Sport growth

Thinking back to when the 2008/9 Volvo Ocean Race fleet came to Boston in April/May, and recalling the crowds that filled the race village during the weekends, the question is if an opportunity was lost during that occasion. The village was filled with sailors, but also filled with curious non-sailors, either wondering about the event, or just wanting to be at what seemed to be THE bar in Boston atop the PUMA clothing store.

The opportunity, it would seem, is being seized at Cowes Week, this mega UK event that typically attracts around 1,000 yachts and 8,500 competitors. However, in this instance, it is an event for the attending non-racing crowd that deserves to be recognized.

Using the Laser SB3 keelboat, a program has been launched following the racing each day, where members of the public can experience the thrill of the sport. Each SB3 is to be helmed by a qualified skipper, who will teach up to three crew members how to sail, which will be followed by a race against nine other SB3s. All the participant needs is a pair of soft soled shoes; all other essentials including spray tops and buoyancy aids will be provided.

“Cowes Week is an integral part of the British sporting calendar and, as such, it attracts over 100,000 visitors to Cowes,” says Stuart Quarrie, CEO of Cowes Week Limited. “The ‘Come Racing’ programme by LaserPerformance and Pelican Racing is fantastic and means that anyone can get a taste of racing, whether or not they have previous sailing experience.”

This seems like a brilliant idea, and an excellent example of how to seize an opportunity for the growth of the sport.

Linnie Canal

When I read the story below about the 'America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta', it brought back great memories of the annual summer Linnie Canal race in Venice, CA (near Los Angeles). Entrants would bring their construction material to one end of the canal and have two hours to build their 'boat'. When time expired, the starting gun would sound, with each team using only sail power to race downwind through the canal to the finish.

The channel was narrow, not even 100 feet wide, and the course went under a few low bridges. Spectators lined the sides of the canal, with the most spirited fans on the bridges to douse the racers with all forms of fluid. Some of the savvy racers had fire extinguishers for protection. It was a riot.

Hopefully the current holder of the America’s Cup, the Swiss Alinghi team, does not seek to shut down the 'America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta'. They are very protective of the America’s Cup brand usage, and their lawyers do have some free time right now.

(Crystal Lake, IL) - Between 40 and 50 boaters raced Saturday along Crystal Lake’s Main Beach to join the 25th annual America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta as spectators cheered all ages who designed boats using cardboard, duct tape and creativity. Todd and Lynette Collins came for their fourth year from DeKalb to design three boats. Taking five weeks to build was a Mystery Machine from the Scooby Doo cartoon, proving that vans can float. “This is the one fun thing we do every year,” Lynette Collins said. “We put more into it than cardboard and duct tape.” -- Read on

Zac Efron sails

Here is the recipe: get one movie celebrity, go sailing, and quickly there are paparazzi photos of the event splashed in all forms of non-sailing media. This seems to be a foolproof plan, and was recently demonstrated when Zac Efron went for a sail last week at Marina del Rey in Los Angeles to prepare for an upcoming movie role.

While it is unlikely that this occasion made much of a contribution to the 15,200,000 listings that Google has for him, this youthful star of the “High School Musical” franchise gave the sport a bit of a boost with over 50 websites picking up the story. For the astute observer of the photos, it was noticed that Zac’s day on the bay was in a Lido 14, and his instructor was none other than Olympic medalist Pease Glaser.

2009 ESPYs

MAUREEN MCKINNON-TUCKER NOMINATED FOR ESPY AWARD

For the best in movies, there are the Academy Awards. For the best in television, there are the Emmy Awards. Music has the Grammy Awards, and theatre has the Tony Awards.

For sports, there are the ESPYs.

Hosted by ESPN, the ESPYs gather top celebrities from sports and entertainment to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances. The 2009 show is on July 19th.

Among the 37 categories, 2008 Paralympic sailing gold medalist Maureen McKinnon-Tucker is one of the four nominees in the "Female Athlete with a Disability" category. There's not another sailor in any other category.

Maureen and teammate Nick Scandone overcame long odds to reach the Paralympic Games, let alone dominate the event. Nick lived with ALS just long enough to win the gold, while Maureen balanced her paralysis with training and attending to her 2 year old son’s battle with his brain tumor (he’s now 9 months post-treatment and currently cancer-free).

The recognition each nominee receives during the televised awards show is immense, but to see Maureen on the same stage as the elite athletes of the world would be epic. The winner in each category is determined by online voting.

Time for every sailor to support their sport in the easiest way possible…. GET OUT THE VOTE. Online voting is done here: http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/espys2009/#/vote

Will promote for beer

This sounds like a good idea, if only to get people closer to the Scuttlebutt Brewing Company, which sits on the waterfront in Everett, WA:

It’s an ambitious project intended to serve boaters, reconnect Everett residents with the city’s waterfront and transform a former industrial area into a vibrant new neighborhood destination.

The $400 million Port Gardner Wharf project calls for a mix of condos, townhouses, office space, shops, restaurants, inns, a marine-related “Craftsmen District” and a network of walkways and other amenities in the city’s north marina area. -- Read on

TGIF

Hope your day is better than this firefighter...

Recipe for success

Here we go again, another brilliant example of the convergence of sailing with media-friendly entities. In early August, this UK event combines high profile boats and sailors, a well known company, charities, and celebrities:

The Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week has attracted a fleet of seven Open 60 boats, and more teams are expected to join the line up over the coming weeks. The race, run by Artemis Investment Management, is a 50 mile high speed sprint around the Isle of Wight for IMOCA 60s, with £10,000 ($16,300 US) donated to the charity of the winning skipper.

The skippers and their teams will be joined by a number of high profile celebrities for the event, which this year will also be an ideal warm up ahead of the Rolex Fastnet Race. The race has quickly become a popular event for skippers and the general public alike, and has bred a strong competition amongst the skippers to take first prize.

Of course it helps that Cowes Week is already a big stage, with over 1,000 boats competing and In excess of 100,000 spectators come to watch the sailing and enjoy the parties and live entertainment. Regardless, it is an inspired moment of opportunity grasped.

Go Scuttlebutt!

The Scuttlebutt e-newsletter was first launched in 1997, but it wasn’t until later in 2002 that we got around to launching a website. Soon thereafter we learned about the Scuttlebutt Brewing Company, and last summer got to sample some of their styles during a swing through their town of Everett, WA. Here’s a story about the brewery on the Three Sheets Northwest blog:

We like the beer at Everett-based Scuttlebutt Brewing Company — and apparently plenty of other people do too. The Brewer’s Association, a national industry organization, recently ranked Scuttlebutt sixth in the nation out of 928 brewpubs for the amount of beer sold last year. It also ranked third in Washington state. The company sold more than 3,900 barrels of its beer in 2008. That equates to 7,800 kegs or 121,000 gallons of beer—enough to cater about 4,000 weddings.

Go Scuttlebutt!

Butthead, butthead, butthead

Lucky for this Scuttlebutt subscriber that their email filter protected them from the offensive language in Scuttlebutt 2870. This was the email that I received:

To: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
Subject: Microsoft Forefront Server Security Notification: An email was blocked due to inappropriate content
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:53:14 -0500

Your email did not reach its intended recipient(s) due to being blocked for containing inappropriate content.

The message sent with Subject, +ACI-Scuttlebutt 2870+ACI-, was flagged by the system automatically for containing the following inappropriate content:

KEYWORD+AD0- Profanity: buttheads

To remedy this, please remove the inappropriate content and resend it.

I wonder how many more emails like this I will receive if Scuttlebutt 2871 includes 'Butthead, butthead, butthead'.

Father's Day

This would have made an awesome Father's Day gift:

FuelKleen from Centek Industries catches drips and splashes from boat fuel filling nozzles. A patented medium instantly catches and binds to oil, gasoline and diesel fuel before they spill into the water and cause pollution - and increase the likelihood of fines or other penalties. Slips easily over any fuel pump nozzle, can be reused until it is fully saturated. MSRP is $US5.50.

Perhaps they have a model that works for males too.

TGIF