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A2B take a Southlander home!


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Wonder what happens to the money then?

Its a pity that so much was invested into it without any looking into whether that investment was actually going to help the sport of sailing, because now thats an investment option that is closed off - Good luck any other event getting that kind of funding now if this one is canned...

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I think the point a lot of us are missing, is that the money wasn't ever about helping the sport of sailing, it was entirely about economic developmet for Invercagill and Bluff. That is how it was sold to the Ministry of Economic Development and why Invercagill City Council were stumping up cash but Auckland Council wasn't.

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Wonder what happens to the money then?

Its a pity that so much was invested into it without any looking into whether that investment was actually going to help the sport of sailing, because now thats an investment option that is closed off - Good luck any other event getting that kind of funding now if this one is canned...

 

Chris,

 

There was / is no money as they didn't reach the threshold of overseas boats.

 

To date the whole thing was self funded by the guys organizing the regatta.

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"Postponed".

 

Auckland to Bluff Ocean Race postponed

 

The Board of Directors of the Auckland to Bluff Ocean Race have decided to postpone the inaugural sailing of the race. Since the Race was announced in December 2012, there has been considerable interest in this major new ocean race, which has been dubbed as New Zealand’s version of the ‘Sydney to Hobart’ race.

 

While several Australian boats had made expressions of interest to be part of the inaugural race and there has been a wide range of NZ yachts keen to be part of this sailing challenge, many of these teams have found the lead time to organise their participation too short to mount a campaign.

 

Significant work has been done by the race organisers since the December announcement and a mooring plan for the boats arrival in Bluff, which will allow safe moorings of the yachts, and allow the public to view the yachts in port has been developed. Plans for race villages in both Auckland and Bluff were on track with events programmes that allow the public to get involved with the event and farewell the boats from Auckland, and welcome them into to Bluff. These plans will be carried forward.

 

The additional time gives the organisers the opportunity to work with the sailing community both in NZ and offshore to ensure the long term success of this major NZ sailing event, and provide the opportunity to bring further stakeholders on board. Both Major Events NZ and the Invercargill City Council, as the key stakeholders, have been consulted in making this decision.

 

An announcement on the inaugural A2B Ocean Race will now take place in the new year.

 

Peter Ross

A2B Ocean Race Board Chairman

Mobile (027) 4854 572

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ensure the long term success of this major NZ sailing event,

 

Major NZ sailing event?!? Cough!

 

The RNI is a major NZ sailing event, of which the start date clashed with bang on. Give me a break. It's not hard for a half pie descent project manager, let alone your average yatchie or club race administrator to check for basic, fundamental date clashes. A bit like booking two All Black matches on the same day!

 

The Coastal is a major NZ sailing event. the Simrads is a major NZ sailing event.

The A2B is an economic development event with boats in it.

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ensure the long term success of this major NZ sailing event,

 

Major NZ sailing event?!? Cough!

 

The RNI is a major NZ sailing event, of which the start date clashed with bang on. Give me a break. It's not hard for a half pie descent project manager, let alone your average yatchie or club race administrator to check for basic, fundamental date clashes. A bit like booking two All Black matches on the same day!

 

The Coastal is a major NZ sailing event. the Simrads is a major NZ sailing event.

The A2B is an economic development event with boats in it.

 

 

You hit the nail on the head fish....... :clap:

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Dave Mee of race organisers SMC Events told the Herald that his company was working on a revised business plan for the race and a decision whether the race would go ahead in 2015 was still at least a month away.

 

Since when did a yacht race need a business plan? Hey, wanna race me to Kawau? OK. Hey look a business plan.

 

 

 

"Events, particularly in yachting, sometimes take three, four or five years to get momentum ... "

People have to like the idea then choose to participate.

 

 

He said the initial $100,000 had been spent "on a whole host of things" including paying Australian consultants to investigate whether the Bluff port wharf was suitable for mooring racing yachts.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I'd do it for half that and it wouild take less than a week.

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Why THE HELL are we paying for an Australian consultant to tell us whether bluff wharf is suitable for a race yacht to moor at????

Can anyway say "Gravy train"

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He said the initial $100,000 had been spent "on a whole host of things" including paying Australian consultants to investigate whether the Bluff port wharf was suitable for mooring racing yachts.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: Yeah, na, must of never been there to look at the wharf, you don't need to ask anyone, just wait a day or two till a 50kt southery rocks through. :roll: :roll: :roll:

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Hi all,

 

We have been following your discussion on the proposed A2B race.

 

When Murray Francis came up with the idea of a race to equal the Sydney-Hobart, he was thinking big. He wanted a race that would be up there alongside other great races in the world yachting calendar- something the cream of New Zealand and Australian boats and smaller Kiwi yachts up for a challenge would joust for each year . It didn’t appear that there was anything to fit the bill, in the local calendar.

 

If you know Murray, you know he is someone who has great ideas and is driven to make them work - he has produced many movies, including The World’s Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins - and had spent years getting this event to fruition. He simply wants to see us compete on a world scale and showcase to the world our marine expertise and technology.

 

Murray approached my company, SMC Events, and together we did our homework, pitched the concept to a range of parties - including the Invercargill City Council, the government department Major Events New Zealand, and others. We recognised that this race was ambitious, and we set about developing a plan to make it happen. We formally engaged the Royal Akarana Yacht Club in this process as our partners in the race management.

 

Unfortunately it seems that while our discussions with owners, skippers and crew did show that there was a good degree of enthusiasm within the yachting community, it didn’t translate to actual entries. We were probably going to get 8-10 boats on the start line, but we needed more than that. We therefore made an early decision to postpone the race, so that everyone involved could revised their plans for January 2014 and we took a step back to look at why it didn’t work, and what we could change to make the race succeed.

 

We acknowledge that we made a mistake scheduling the event to coincide with the SSANZ’s race around the North Island, but we were designing an event that would appeal primarily to Hobart entrants and other big New Zealand race boats, which are not represented in this race. Making Bluff the destination presented challenges for boat owners, mostly relating to secure boat berthage, but we had worked with the council and were developing a solution to overcome this.

 

Fish has pointed out that the money was for economic development, and not for yachting. He is correct. The council and government departments saw this event as a way of kick starting activity in the Bluff and Invercargill economies, and ancillary events surrounding the race, were potentially going to be very good for local businesses. Economic development through major events is a strategy used by our current and past governments, often very effectively.

 

You question why outsiders are trying to organise a yachting event, and we have received that feedback before. We saw - and still see - potential for a yacht race staged as a major event. My company puts together the Ellerslie Flower Show, the Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon, the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman and several other major events, and our expertise in creating events that deliver on objectives for all stakeholders, was an important part of the equation. In our industry, to be successful and accountable for spending public money or sponsorship money, it is important that you be thorough and robust - and all of this takes time, attention and energy to details that happen behind the scenes and which the public don't see. David Howie is suggesting that he could put an event together in a short amount of time, and granted at a very basic level you could enact an event this way, but when it comes to the intricacies of event management on this scale, these things take time and professional planning. The yachting community locally tends to do this on a volunteer basis - but we came in as professionals and with the ideas, the ability and the polish that this brings, to turn it from a race, into an event. And please be mindful of the fact that there are some great races on the calendar but no volunteer-run yacht club is currently achieving anything like what we propose. If we can pull it off, it will be something unique and spectacular.

 

Where are we at now? We have held meetings with boat owners in Auckland and Wellington, which were represented by boat owners from other locations, and across the spectrum of different types of boats and interests. We have also invited 200 boat owners in New Zealand to take part in an online survey, and will are doing the same with our targets in the Australian market. We will be going back to our partners in Southland and with Major Events New Zealand, and discussing our options with them.

 

You will be amongst the first to know when the future of the race is finalised.

 

Dave Mee

SCM Events

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having had a quick look at the chart and noting that the intended cliental is your Sydney to Hobart go getters, and the fact that most of them have a draft of 6mtrs.

Where do you intend to finish the race, will it be a finish boat or a line from a land point. What plan do you have to get them along the bite/channel and then into the harbour. If it's low tide, and or blowing like hell from a southerly direction. Or even god forbid any easterly component that is not uncommon that time of year.

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I think most of the "great event" yacht races are that way because a few boats gave it a go, liked it, did it again and a few more boats showed up as well. Eventually you end up with a big significant event, or nothing if the idea sank.

On that basis running a low key event is longer term probably going to get you further ahead that the "instant hit" approach that sees to be the target here.

 

Despite all the planning and event management experience you can throw at something this, until it has happened its still an unknown. Of the yachts that intially expressed interest a bet there will be a few that were planning to watch the first race and then contemplate doing the next.

 

Saying something is 'great' doesn't mak it great...

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If I was a volunteer, which I was only a few hours ago, I think I'd take offence at Daves comments. But as we spent bugger all to get a nice fleet on the startline and they have spent 200K (reportedly) to get no where, I'm happy knowing us volunteers have achieved what those professionals are still only dreaming about.

 

Don't tis volunteers and suggest you can do better until you you've actually done it.

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What has the 200 boat owner survey going to achieve? There is only a handful of dedicated boat owners that would even think about taking there boat offshore down the west coast for a race. I would have thought the response so far by the lack of entries speaks for itself.

 

Q1- Would you like to do 1100miles and end up in Bluff or do 1100 miles and end up nice and warm under some palm trees.

 

Cheers, SS

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for once i am 100% with knot me

 

dont dis volunteers ,

grass roots club yachting suvives in this country to the extent it does largely because of volunteers , people who have been there and done it and stepped back to put something back , or are still doing it and prepared to take a break to put something back, or the family of participants and it works week in week out and for bigger events where those same people use there contacts to tap a little slice of sponsirship

but the key is these "volunteers" and "amatuers" know what works , what people want because they are there at the coal face talking to those whowill turn up desiging an event they want to take part in

 

large scale events that require larege budgets to compete or have lots of sponsior dollars these days seem to attract smaller fleets ( AC 4 boats ) last volvo ( 6and a bit boats)

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Has Murray Francis done a Coastal Classic? No it's not the S-H but still a damn fine and well supported event. Put the $100k on the table as prize money [and no disrespect to the existing prizes that are great] and see how many Aussie boats turn up to have a crack.

 

There also doesn't seem to be the recognition that the S-H boats don't just sit around for the rest of the year, they have a good set of [warm] coastal races already on the calendar.

 

One of the difficulties for many sports these days is continued splintering of sport & events and shinking participation - if we could make everybody play just rugby cricket and sailing then it would be easier! And the yacht clubs are guilty ourselves with this too. Why not get behind or build onto an existing event rather than creating further splintering?

Dave, take a stroll into the Devonport Yacht Club on a Friday evening and have a look at the pics of HRH kicking off the early TMRNI race, or the pre-race shots of the boats rafted up in the Navy drydock. The country has some great events already.

Has SSANZ got a good docco maker lined up? Maybe there is some synergy there with Murray's stated aims?

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