A milestone in the world yacht racing industry

The first time in the history of sailing many of the key stakeholders of our industry found the way to Monaco to jointly discuss the future our industry. It never appeared to me clear that we are all part of big family and that we are all working in the same industry independent of the countries organizations or teams we belong.

Interesting session with great speakers talking about sponsorship, event management, and key elements driving the world yacht racing industry.

The sailing community is used to meet and come together for events but this is the first time all focused on exchanging ideas and discussion approaches how to improve our industry, networking without having a race to be sailed or organized.

The session about the future of the America’s cup didn’t brought any new hope for a fast resolution of the conflict between Alinghi and BMW Oracle. Paul Cayard Cleary outlined the more fundamental problem of the current situation. The Americas cup moved up to a new level in the last few editions and current management concept as described in the deed of gift does not allow a fast resolution of conflicts. Will and independent body improve this situation and how can this be put in place.

The economy slow down is not only a headline on the news but also having an impact on the founding of the events, teams etc. are this challenging times an opportunity to strengthen the world yacht racing industry. What is the value of an event investment, how can this be properly measured to what is the return of the investment and how is the industry positioned within other industries. It became clear that if well managed the sailing industry is capable of delivering a much higher return as mostly any other sport.

This was certainly the first step in to the right direction and I hope more of this will follow. There is one point who remain addressed only partially, out of the discussions became clear that in the eye of many large event organizers such as OC Events ISAF with his democratic approach is not able to fulfill their requirements.

What is going to happen, will the forum be an important platform for ISAF to better understand the needs of many professionals in this sailing marked or will it be even possible to contribute and cooperate on a different level.

Future will tell

Juerg