Exploring the future of sail racing at Yacht Racing Forum

“We have managed to assemble the athletes and CEOs of the most important organisations in the sport of sailing,” Schöpfer announces. “We have the leading people from World Sailing, SailGP, the IMOCA class, the World Match Racing Tour, ICOMIA, the Magenta Project and much more. There is no other event where so many executive decision makers from within the sport of sailing take time to meet, network, discuss the future of the sport and have a good time together. That's something we're very proud of.”

Stakeholders

The organiser hopes to see attendance from a wide audience of professionals and athletes involved in yacht racing. “We hope to welcome all the people involved in the industry of yacht racing. That goes from boat builders, designers, event organizers, sponsors, people involved in marketing, communication, the sports governing associations, yacht clubs, venues. These people need each other to do their work on the desired level. There are a lot of stakeholders involved in the sport. Getting the people from these businesses and clubs together is quite important for the industry to work. For example, an event organizer will come to the forum, and he will meet teams, he will meet technology providers that present new solutions, experiences can be shared to further develop the sport and create ever better regattas. We’re bringing all these people that have very different jobs together.”

New fans

Sail GP is event partner of the YRF. This special competition with foiling catamarans is held with races in major waterfront cities around the world, often in narrow waters close along the quaysides where the audience can see the racing up close. Schöpfer is glad to have this competition, that aims to present the thrill of sailboat racing close to an international audience in the conference. “SailGP has made a big impression in the yacht racing world. What they do is very spectacular. They travel a lot. They go to venues with super high tech boats. They reach out to an audience that is way beyond the regular sailing fans because they propose a show like Formula One. The races are close to the shore with grandstands, Sail GP will be represented by Russell Coutts, one of the founders of the whole circuit. Russell will be our opening keynote speaker on day two. We're very proud to to have Russell as a speaker. I think that brings a lot of interest to the event for every participant.”

Media coverage

Race management and teams from the Ocean Race also attend and present their stories. Team Malizia is coming to the YRF with team director Holly Cova as well as team Holcim-PRB with skipper Rosalin Kuiper. Race chairman of the Ocean Race Richard Brisius comes to explain how his organisation aims to present a good race with a big outreach and exciting media coverage – and maybe to learn from fellow event organisers, too.

Club to pro

Presenting the top of the sail racing world and their efforts and achievements is a method in the YRF to target the sport as a whole, also for amateur racing. “When we do a presentation on SailGP or the IMOCA class, it's top of the league. But it directly concerns very few sailors who are actually active in these races. Most of the content of the conference is aimed at the whole range of the sport. Basically, everybody who races boats at every level, it's important for us to involve companies like Beneteau or X-yachts, because they touch a lot of people. Also in the discussions we plan to have about the development of youth sailing, we recognise that it is important to include everybody – from athletic talents to beginners and people with special challenges.”

Welcoming

During YRF there will be sessions on organising and managing successful events. This is for every type of event. A yacht club or city harbour may be very happy to host SailGP, but they're also happy to welcome an amateur regatta like the Barcolana with 1,700 boats. “We're going to have speakers representing the Admiral's Cup, they're going to talk about successful event management. That's something interesting for every yacht club, whether their event is high level racing or club racing. In all presentations, subjects like sustainability and inclusivity that are very important for us, are discussed in the context of the subject:

sustainable boat design and build, waste management at venues, sponsorship – all of these subjects relate to inclusivity and sustainability.”

Engagement

“We have one session entitled ‘What Future for the Sport of Sailing?’ We will present some statistics that are show declining numbers in amateur yacht racing participation. This is not a good news for our sport. Boat sales are declining, youth participation is diminishing. What can we as an industry do to change that? Do we do something wrong? I do not have the answers. I'm bringing the people together and hopefully they will bring the answers. We have a group of very talented and experienced people who will be discussing this subject.”

Archimedean

“Foiling is something new for the sport of sailing, relatively new. Over the last ten years it has matured a lot. I think designers and sailors have brought a lot of dynamic into this new branch of the sport. With product development and the fact that sailors embrace it. However, it remains only a segment in the whole of the yacht racing sport. I think it's very interesting to see the trickle-down benefits from foiling to maritime transport and efficiency, to achieve make savings on CO2 emissions. That's very, very positive.

In terms of the sport, of course, we have SailGP and the IMOCA class and other sessions where we will mention foiling. It's an important subject. Yet, we don't want to put too much emphasis on it, because most people don't foil, and most people who race boats still sail on Archimedean boats. In big events like The Admiral's Cup, the Fastnet Race, there is no foiling.”

Attend show and forum

This year’s edition of the two day conference has only one day overlap with the regular Metstrade show, to allow participants to get the most out of the trade show and still attend the sessions of the YRF. There is a sailor’s party on Thursday evening, after Metstrade has closed. YRF attendants can stay for the very interesting second day on Friday, not being distracted by the large tradeshow going on alongside. The conference is on Thursday, November 20 and Friday, November 21.

www.yachtracingforum.com