TO WARD S N E W H O RI ZO NS
Leading the way...
Towards new horizons
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VIP guests of the commercial sponsors that make such a series possible – and the desire and need to maintain the highest calibre of racing, attracting the very best skippers in the world. In 2010 we have added an extra day’s racing, turning the opening Media day into a points scoring one – before the public village opens, allowing some slightly more ‘conventional’ racing out of sight of land. But our commitment to the concept of sailing entertainment
PH YSIC ALLY OVER 40 0, 0 0 0 PA IR S OF E Y E S, A ND MILLIONS MORE V I A T HE M EDIA , HAVE WATCH ED TH E 350 R ACES SINCE OUR OPE NING S A LVO OF T HE E X TREM E S AILING SERIES ON L A KE STA RN BE RG, GE RM A NY IN 20 07. EVEN THOUGH THE CREATORS OF THE EXTREME 40 YACHT WHICH WE USE TODAY FOR THE EXTREME SAILING SERIES HAD TESTED THE WATER DURING THE 2005/6 VOLVO OCEAN RACE, I do remember feeling rather nervous that first morning on a mirror like German lake. Seventy-five days, 15 great venues in 12 countries later, across 5 continents, in just about every condition possible from 3 knots of wind on a flat lake to 30 knots on rough open water, having never lost an entire day’s racing: sailing’s most riveting, most spectacular and exciting format has really come of age. We go into our fourth year just as excited as in our first, and with just as much as ambition to grow and develop the series, to take it to new and unprecedented levels. We tread an often difficult path between the entertainment objective – be it for public, media or
remains 100%, and as we expand in Asia and the Middle-East, we are reaching new audiences for a sport which has so much to offer – socially, economically and as an entertainment product. Uniquely the Extreme Sailing Series unites skippers from across all the disciplines, from Olympic dinghy medallists to solo round-the-world Vendée Globers, from America’s Cup to Volvo Ocean Race. Fifteen nationalities of sailors have now competed in the Extreme Sailing Series, and many a monohull expert has been converted to the multihull discipline. In itself the Extreme 40, the chosen tool for the series, highlights the great values that help the sport of sailing become an exceptional entertainment platform – you just had to be in Almeria at the closing Act of 2009’s European circuit and hear the (non-sailor) crowd gasp and cheer as boats lifted hulls and flew past, focused sailors looking down on the audience. Combine the speed and acceleration of the boats, with the ‘stadium’ environment we
race in, and you have a cocktail of fast and furious close combat that allows the audience to really get onboard. Just about every new sailing event launched in the last two years has proclaimed to be saving the planet. It’s natural that the professional sailing world does perhaps care more than most about looking after the planet – round the world sailors know all about surviving on the minimum resources – but shouting about how green we are because we are in a sport powered by the wind can be rather disingenuous. With the Extreme Sailing Series, we are running a global event, moving boats and people from place to place. We don’t believe ‘events’ should cease to exist on the basis of the footprint they create, but we do believe we must play our own part in reducing our consumption, our energy usage and our waste. We can’t change the nature of what we do, but we can do it much much better. We’re not going to claim any environmental prizes at all, but we are going to try and improve every area we can. We’re going to fully audit what we do, and work season on season to be better. We hope our audience will join us in that effort. Finally, a big thank you to the many stakeholders that are part of the Extreme Sailing Series family – sponsors and their guests, suppliers, sailors, host venues, media and the public that make this event so special. And not least the hard working OC Events team in the background that make this happen.
Mark Turner CEO of OC Group,
www.extremesailingseries.com
© Th.Martinez / Sea&Co / OC Events
the parent company of event organisers OC Events