London, UK – 26 January, 2012: Match Race Germany, the opening event on the 2012 World Match Racing Tour, has announced world renowned car manufacturer Porsche as a new event partner. This year marks the 15^th anniversary of Match Race Germany which will take place on Lake Constance, Langenargen from 23 to 28 May 2012.
 
Following a successful trial sponsorship by MHP, a subsidiary of Porsche, at Match Race Germany in 2011, Porsche AG will now become a sponsor and boat partner to this year’s event which attracts over 30,000 sailing fans. A marketing campaign, including on-event activation, will allow the brand to engage with current and prospective customers at the annual event. 

Porsche AG is noted for its motorsport heritage and feels this venture into sailing is a natural progression for the brand. “Sailing is a very popular and highly respected sport amongst our customers,” said Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of Porsche Germany GmbH. 

“Both sailing and motorsport rely on clear rules, teamwork, strategy, tactics and of course good fortune – and these values are also reflected in our management style. Sailing is clean, fair, free of doping and essentially comes down to one thing – working out how to get from start to finish in the fastest possible way.” 

“Match Race Germany is what the Carrera Cup represents to us,” said Zellmer. “It offers an enthusiastic sporting audience, all within touching distance, delivering a live experience and not just a satellite transmission.”

Speaking about the announcement, Harald Thierer, Match Race Germany Organiser, emphasised that Porsche is joining a group of corporate event partners, including STIHL, MHP, Ultramarin, Rolf Benz and Bavaria, who will each benefit from a year-round activation: 

“Our partners can expect much more than the five-day appearance and exposure at an international sporting event, with enthusiastic spectators and associated media coverage. Porsche and all our other partners will benefit from our wider offering which includes an event centre, business coaching, training programmes and yacht charter department.” 

As a partner Porsche will also benefit from the Tour’s international broadcast both on television and the internet. Sailing fans can follow each event online via a live blog as well as a few hours of live coverage each day including expert commentary from on and off the water. In addition morning and evening shows are produced daily by Red Handed TV showing interviews with sailors, event organisers and sponsors as well as highlights from all the day’s action on the water. 

2 Feb 2012

Good Morning Vietnam

Catch the latest news from the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 as the fleet close in on Sanya and head up the Vietnamese coast.

Leg 3 Addendum inc amendment 2

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on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Sailing Instructions

Video: Closing in on China

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand hugs the coast of Vietnam as they close on Sanya, China, in the closing stages of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

World Sailing Management (WSM), organizers of the MedCup sailing circuit, the official international competition of the TP52 and Soto 40 classes, regrets to announce to all those involved and interested in this prestigious circuit, that it has decided to suspend the 2012 season.

This difficult business decision was taken for the following reasons, all of them related to the economic and financial crisis affecting the whole world and Europe in particular:

1. Serious uncertainty regarding the number of boats, mainly in the 52 Series (TP 52 class), willing to commit to compete in all of the events comprising the circuit with the risk of an insufficient number of competitors to ensure the competitive level reached by the circuit in previous seasons.

2. The lack of financial resources available to local authorities in their bid to become potential venues for the events of the circuit, which limited the ability to address their usual obligations and maintain the circuit’s level of quality.

3. Together with the abovementioned factors, a decrease in the support needed from AUDI AG, which has been the circuit’s title sponsor, has led WSM to terminate, early and peacefully, the sponsorship deal linking both companies.

In brief, WSM believes that it is more rational to suspend the Circuit than let it continue with falling standards.

Nevertheless, WSM will continue to work during 2012 in order to overcome these difficulties, confident that it will be able once again to provide the sailing world with the spectacle that the MedCup Circuit has always been.

Madrid, December 6, 2011

New faces and one new team are confirmed in the line-up for the 2012 RC44 Championship Tour, which kicks off in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote next week (8 February 2012).

Each of the 14 competing teams will be hoping to emulate the success Chris Bake’s Team Aqua (GBR) saw in 2011. Bake will be back with the same team, including longstanding tactician Cameron Appleton (NZL), and fighting to lift the trophy for the second year in a row, despite some heavy-hitters joining the Tour in 2012.

The new all-Italian team joins the fleet for the 2012 season. AFX Capital Racing Team is owned by Massimo Barranco, founder and General Manager of Eurograni SpA Company, the largest wheat and cereal trader in Italy. The team will debut at the first event in Puerto Calero.

With a strict 50-50 split between amateurs and professionals in each eight-person crew, the amateur owners take the wheel for the fleet racing while the pro tacticians get their chance to steer during the match racing phase of the RC44 Championship Tour. In 2011 some of the owners proved very successful themselves at the helm for the match racing, a trend set to continue in 2012.

New professionals such as multiple America’s Cup winner Brad Butterworth (NZL), fellow Cup winner Ed Baird (USA) and Olympic medallist Ross Macdonald (CAN) are listed on the crew lists for first event of the season in Lanzarote.

Butterworth is perhaps best known for his role in the America’s Cup as tactician and skipper for Team New Zealand and Swiss team Alinghi. The New Zealander is no stranger to the RC44 fleet, having last season coached the David Murphy’s Ironbound in Austria. For 2012, he will be tactician for Gennadi Timchenko’s Russian entry Katusha, replacing long-time tactician Paul Cayard who will focus on his 34th America’s Cup commitments as CEO of Artemis Racing.

American Ed Baird also has an esteemed America’s Cup career, having been a coach for the 1995 Cup winning Team New Zealand and a helmsman for the 2007 Cup winning Alinghi team. For the Lanzarote, Baird joins the Valentin Zavadnikov and the crew of the Synergy Russian Sailing Team.

Ross Macdonald is one of Canada’s most successful international sailors, having won silver at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Macdonald will be aiming to help owner Pieter Heerema and the crew of No Way Back (NED) find their way back to the top of the leader board after finishing seventh in the 2011 Tour.

Adding another experienced match sailor to their crew, Team AEZ (AUT) will this season welcome Germany’s Markus Wieser. His past success in numerous Dragon regattas is sure to add to the Austrians’ fighting chances as owner as owner Rene Mangold explained. “It was Christian Binders idea to ask Markus to join the team. Christian wants to concentrate further on his role as a sailmaker/designer for our project and will be on board AEZ as a crew this season, as well as being responsible for the sails and crew management. Apart from Markus the rest of the crew will be the same as 2011. Keeping this consistency we are confident that we have a lot of potential to improve. But it’s anyone’s game and to predict a result is hard to say in a fleet with so many world class sailors.”

Absent from the 2012 season is ORACLE Racing, whose crew will be fully concentrating their efforts on the defence of their title at the 34th America’s Cup.

The 14 competing teams will again be challenged by a mixture of lake, ocean and harbour racing in 2012 with new host port, Cascais in Portugal, welcoming the fleet for the second round of the Tour.

The London Clubhouse will be partially re-opening from Monday 6^th February 2012.

The entrance to the clubhouse will temporarily be at 19 St James’s Place which is to the right hand side of your usual front door.

We have four bedrooms available for booking, increasing to five bedrooms from Monday 20^th February 2012.

The Dining room which offers a two course lunch from £15.00 a two course dinner from £20.00 will also be open from Monday 6^th February 2012. The Jolie Brise and Fastnet rooms will also be available private hire.

Whilst the Clubhouse is open, ongoing building work will continue on the upper floors so please note that there will be noise in the Bar and Fastnet areas from 9am until 4pm. Structural alterations may require the Bar and Fastnet room to be closed at short notice and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Bar and Restaurant Opening times

Lunch: Mon – Fri 12.30, last orders 13.45
Dinner: Mon – Thu 19.30, last orders 20.45
Bar: Mon – Fri 12.00 – 15.00; 17.30 until 23.00
Friday night the bar closes at 20.00

For any accommodation or restaurant bookings or if you have any further enquiries please contact Mark Newens on 0207 493 2248 or email
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We look forward to welcoming you all back to the Clubhouse.