sponsorship
Sponsorship – 18ft Skiff Racing
Become a part of the world’s most spectacular, colourful, action-packed sailing on Sydney Harbour:
HIGH TECH
HIGH PERFORMANCE
HIGH SPEED
18ft SKIFF RACING - FORMULA ONE ON WATER
These iconic Australian boats are 100% performance-focused flying machines with a high power-to-weight ratio and a top speed up to
30-knots under their visually stunning 350 sq ft/105 m2 of sail
Contents
Naming Rights & Signage Sponsorship of an 18ft Skiff
Administration: Australian 18 Footers League
Media
Corporate
Who is watching the 18ft Skiffs
High Technology
2012 Giltinan Championship – Event Sponsorship
International
Naming Rights & Signage Sponsorship of an 18ft Skiff
High Visibility each Sunday during Summer makes it the perfect floating billboard on Sydney Harbour – with the wonderful backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
It offers the unique feature whereby your skiff is always known by your name in all Race Reports, Results, Press Releases, Video and Television Commentary.
Your signage will be prominently displayed on each mainsail and the boat’s hull. Spinnaker signage is optional.
Your 18ft Skiff is also a highly effective marketing tool which offers a wide range of opportunities to leverage maximum high impact branding of your product.
Gives your company an association with the sport of sailing which has a public face of a clean, environmentally friendly sport which combines the physical strength, tactical skills, technical knowledge and teamwork of its competitors.
Association with the world’s fastest and most spectacular mono-hulled racing boats:
High Technology
High Performance
High Speed
FORMULA ONE ON WATER
Your company will have an association with a sport demographics show has 33% of its supporters included in the wealthiest families in the most exclusive suburbs, and live in homes valued at the top end of the scale.
Administration: Australian 18 Footers League
The Australian 18 Footers League was formed in 1935 and is the world’s leading 18ft Skiff Racing administrative body and host of the world’s premier event – the JJ Giltinan Championship, on Sydney Harbour each year.
The League staged the first Giltinan (world) Championship in 1938 and has always been at the forefront of the sport’s worldwide promotion and development.
Club administrators and competitors have supported regattas in USA, UK and throughout Europe to assist the growth of 18ft Skiff Racing to its present level.
Situated on Sydney Harbour in the eastern suburb of Double Bay, the Australian 18 Footers League is a successful social club with a 5,000 membership.
During the 1990s, club administrators made radical rule changes to rationalize all costs associated with the sport and to promote greater world competition.
Since 1993, Australian 18 Footers League has spent more than $10 million on the production and maintenance of its Sydney based fleet.
Some of Australia’s most famous sailors have been competitors at the Australian 18 Footers League and are also winners of the prestigious Giltinan Championship.
The Americas Cup deeds of Ben Lexcen and Iain Murray are well known. Other club representatives were also involved in winning and defending The Americas Cup, have won Olympic Gold Medals, World and International Championships and have numerous line honours victories in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.
Media
International market research following the 2008 Olympics showed that Sailing has a higher level of following on the internet than most sports.
As a consequence, our emphasis is directed particularly to this area of the media as it can be viewed easily, is available for a lengthy period of time and is worldwide.
Australian 18 Footers League employs an in-house media team, which includes a full time publicist, video production team and photographer.
Race reports, media releases and photographic images from the club’s racing are published each week throughout the season on US, UK and European as well as local yachting websites.
All club races are covered on video and broadcast each week on the club’s website and ‘you tube’.
The international BoatsonTV website also broadcast our racing on their weekly ‘World on Water’ program.
The club is continually monitoring the use of technology to increase the ‘live’ coverage world wide as well as providing “put the viewer in the boat” vision in its own video productions. In March 2011 ‘live tracking’ was introduced (on trial for one week - without pre-promotion) and recorded 12,000 visits from 29 countries.
Corporate
You automatically receive four corporate memberships of Australian
18 Footers League’s club on Sydney Harbour in Double Bay.
Use the outstanding facilities of the club in one of the world’s most beautiful locations to:
Impress VIP business associates and customers
Entertain company executives
Promote staff team building
then
Watch the fortunes of a state-of-the-art 18ft Skiff competing in your company’s colours and logo on Sydney Harbour against the world’s best teams in Australian 18 Footers League races.
What better venue than Sydney Harbour for corporate hospitality.
As well as the club’s spectator ferry, you have the option of a private, fully catered craft to watch the race. The club can make arrangements to best suit your requirements.
Your boat and crew are available for promos and advertising and are excellent marketing tools for corporate functions and entertainment. Whether it’s your boat launching, a ‘ride on your skiff’ a product launch or some other promotional event, the boat and crew will add a special touch.
Who is watching the 18ft Skiffs
Australian 18 Footers League has a number of specific avenues to best promote its racing:
Official website
Online magazine website
18 Footers TV
Flying 18s Video
Live tracking
Official website (6 months, season):
Visits - 36193
Pages - 110940
Online magazine website (12 months):
Visits - 39322
Pages - 96397
Hits - 2117013
18 Footers TV (12 months):
Visits - 31100
Flying 18s video (6 months, season):
(you tube) 30450
Live tracking (Giltinan 2011):
12000 - 29 countries
Leading viewer countries all avenues:
Australia
USA
UK
New Zealand
Germany
Japan
The Australian 18 Footer League’s in-house media team produces information, photographs and video to international sailing websites and freelance yachting journalists.
The three major websites are:
Yachts & Yachting:
66 articles plus photo galleries with each
Users per day - 19243
Hits per day - 744180
Daily Sail:
41 articles plus photo galleries with each
Visits per month - 106000
No. of countries - 131
Sail-World:
74 articles plus photo galleries with each
(up to date figures are not known. 2008 shows 150000 readers plus stories syndicated across 250 sites worldwide)
Other smaller sites not quoted are based in USA, France and Australia.
Major international sailing websites promote Flying 18s and 18 Footers TV videos.
High Technology in 18ft Skiff Racing
The demands of 18ft Skiff Racing are such that maximum strength and minimum weight is essential for all teams to compete at the highest level of competition.
The hull of an 18ft Skiff is constructed from a 1cm layer of Kevlar honeycomb paper sandwiched between two layers of pre-preg carbon fibre, and is baked in a custom built oven for 14 hours at more than 80 degrees celcius.
A hull must not only be very light but strong enough to meet the high demands of 18ft Skiff Racing.
The bare shell weight is about 20kg, and the overall weight before fittings are attached is just 62.5kg.
Rigging components (e.g. masts, booms, spreaders and spinnaker poles) are constructed by a moulding technique from High Modulus carbon fibre to maximize strength while minimizing the weight throughout the rigging.
Working sails are 3DL thermo moulded one piece sails constructed from High Modulus Twaron and IRC carbon and are a lot lighter with less stretch than the traditional sails constructed with joins. Spinnakers are constructed from polyester or silicon coated nylon.
2012 Giltinan Championship – Event Sponsorship
Highlight of the Australian 18 Footers League’s Event Sponsorship packages is the world’s premier 18ft Skiff Regatta – the J.J. Giltinan
Championship.
The 2012 Giltinan Championship will be sailed on Sydney Harbour
from 17-26 February, with eight races to be sailed over the 10-day period.
An international fleet comprising 30 of the world’s best 18ft Skiff teams, representing USA, UK, European countries and New Zealand, together with Australian teams from NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, will contest the championship.
Past winners include some of the world’s most famous yachtsmen, who have won The America’s Cup, Olympic Gold Medals, World and International Championships in many classes, as well as record breaking Sydney-Hobart Race winners.
The skiffs are at the leading edge of technology and the racing will produce action, speed, high visibility and entertainment which will be followed by sailing enthusiasts throughout the world.
The Australian 18 Footers League established the championship in 1938 and is the world’s major 18ft Skiff organizing body.
Situated on Sydney Harbour in the eastern suburb of Double Bay, the Australian 18 Footers League is a successful social club which has spent more than $10million on its fleet over the past 15 years.
Media
The club’s in-house media team has experience and will work hard to leverage the maximum promotion and exposure off the event:
A pre-championship P.R. Campaign
International Sailing and 18ft Skiff-specific websites
Video coverage throughout USA, UK, Europe and Australasia
LIVE Race Tracking worldwide on each race day
As major sponsor of the championship, your name/logo will be carried on each side of the headsail of every competitor and will be included in all areas of communication associated with the championship.
Corporate
As well as naming and signage on the fleet and in media coverage, additional opportunities are available in and around the Double Bay premises for corporate exposure and entertainment.
The event also offers a great opportunity for businesses interested in creating high profile and successful partnerships with an attractive target market.
The outstanding facilities of the club in one of the world’s most beautiful locations is excellent to impress VIP business associates and customers, to entertain company executives and promote staff team building.
What better venue than Sydney Harbour for corporate hospitality.
The option of private, fully catered craft to watch the racing is also available. The club can assist to best suit your requirements.
Positive Image Benefits
Your Company will benefit from an association with the sport of Sailing, which has a public face of a clean, environmentally friendly sport and has competitors with both physical strength and tactical skills.
Sport demographics also show that 33% of Sailing supporters are included in the wealthiest families in the most exclusive suburbs and live in homes at the top end of the scale.
International
Each year the International 18 Footer Association conducts regattas in San Francisco USA and Auckland New Zealand, as well as various venues throughout Europe.
These regattas are open to all competitors and the Australian 18 Footers League can assist any potential competitor with competitive shipping pricing to one or more regattas.
This area of naming rights sponsorship is optional
