Cowes Loses Extreme Sailing Series To Cardiff

[tonybarebones]

Cowes Loses Extreme Sailing Series To Cardiff...

The Cowes Loses Extreme Sailing Series To Cardiffuaint Isle of Wight town, which is home to the annual regatta each August, has hosted the popular Extreme 40 event for the past five years but unlike other Extreme Sailing host venues has never paid organisers OC ThirdPole a staging fee.

As the circuit has become more professional and successful, organisers put the hosting rights out to tender with Cardiff winning the first UK round.

Racing will take place in Cardiff Bay with the first event set to take place shortly after the Olympic Games in August this year and the contract set to run until 2014.

Cowes Week organisers said they were hoping to continue with some Extreme 40 exhibition racing in August but in the absence of a local authority bid to match the Cardiff offer, were focussing on a return to racing among traditional Cowes fleets.

Cardiff is the last venue to be announced for the Extreme Sailing Series in 2012 after Muscat in Oman, Istanbul, Porto in Portugal, Nice, Trapani, Brazil and Qingdao were unveiled as hosts last year.

The series is one of the most widely supported events by the general public in the sailing calendar due to the spectacular performances of the catamarans, the celebrity sailors and guests and the close proximity of the racing to the shore.

Last year the series attracted almost 300,000 spectators with the numbers set to grow after the America's Cup chose to go the multihull route and with the exploits of the British Olympic sailing squad poised to raise the profile of the sport this year. -- Kate Laven in The Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/sailing/

 

[sharpness]

An excellent location for this event to be held; Cowes loss will be Cardiffs gain. Good news all round for local traders and spectators alike.

 

[Allan]

I have just read that the date will be 24th-27th August, although OC have a habit of changing dates.
I'm looking forward to it, I hope there is plenty of wind!
Allan

 

[EBoat126]

Fantastic news for Cardiff, about time some of these events moved away from darn sarf. If it's windy it's going to be hell of a spectacle..is the bay big enough?

 

[trapezeartist]

Will it be in the bay eek or outside?

 

[Allan]

As far as I can see, it will be in the bay.
Allan

 

[Kerenza]

I think it would be good for Cardiff to get this event in many ways but at 40ft long 26 ft wide and a top speed of 40 knts I can't see how they can provide the spectacle the organisers demand in such a small space. And how about all the monitoring buoys etc.?
Will all the vessels resident in the bay be stopped from moving those days? It's a bank holiday.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

As far as I can see, it will be in the bay.
Allan

Its exciting enough inside the barrage with just 20 or so boats in our joint fleets and none of them going faster than a J109 / sportsboat. And how will they keep the Mobos and ferries in harbour - one or two of the mobos regard it as sport to disrupt racing.

It has to be outside but then what about the spectators except perhaps off PYC

 

[Allan]

As someone who hates racing in the bay, I would agree with you. But:

"Racing will take place in Cardiff Bay with the first event set to take place shortly after the Olympic Games in August this year and the contract set to run until 2014."

I can't imagine that such a professional series would run like our racing. After paying £750k, I would think the bay authority would be ban all other moving vessels during the races. They have had exclusion zones in the past. I would not be surprised to see them moving some of our trots for the weekend. Last year there were 11 boats, this year possibly 12. I may be confusing it with the AC45s but I don't think they all race at the same time. I think it is round robin semi-final then final, with 3 or 4 teams maximum.
Allan
Edit: I've just looked at last years results and I am indeed confused, it looks like they all raced together upto 35 times during a meeting.

 

[trapezeartist]

Well, it's gone in my diary.

 

[zlod]

Cowes Loses Extreme Sailing Series To Cardiff...
Cowes Week organisers said they were hoping to continue with some Extreme 40 exhibition racing in August but in the absence of a local authority bid to match the Cardiff offer, were focussing on a return to racing among traditional Cowes fleets.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/sailing/

Can someone help me understand the above text? Is it saying that Cowes local authority can't match the funding provided by Cardiff local authority? Is it saying that Cowes local authority can't match the private funding that some businessmen in Cardiff have put in? Allan says in another post (if I understand it correctly) that the bay authority are paying 750k to get this event to Cardiff.

I guess I'm just having a lot of difficulty working out whose money is being spent on this. I can't believe the taxpayer is paying for this.

 

[Allan]

My understanding, from various internet sites (and we know how reliable the internet is!) is that Cowes was the only event in the calendar that paid nothing to stage the Extreme 40 event. I believe that various places around the UK were approached to place bids for the event. Cardiff council, backed by the Welsh assembly placed a bid, which I believe to be £750,000, to stage the event for the next 3 years.
I can find no information of the bid conditions but it was probably, in my opinion, not just money. It probably would include suitability of the location, both on and off the water and other factors like having the facilities to unload the ship that delivers the yachts.
The Extreme 40 events are run by OC (Ocean Challenges) the company/team behind some to Dame Ellen MacArthur's exploits. Mark Turner has been involved since the beginning and, I believe, is the Chairman and/or CEO. OC are extremely professional and the series is a world class sporting event and a great coup for Cardiff.
Allan

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Cardiff council, backed by the Welsh assembly placed a bid, which I believe to be £750,000, to stage the event for the next 3 years.

And people say that public spending cant be cut!

 

[EBoat126]

Here's what we've got to look forward to

Looks like the new format is very short courses, lots of close tacking & gybing. 12 minute races.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fo8PB7bm6U

Should be quite a sight.