The Art of the Deal

The whole thing started when I bought a place in Mystic, CT and moved my boat over from the east end of Long Island. I had spent the previous couple of years slowly transitioning from cruising sailing to more short handed, middle distance type racing, mostly out of necessity. In my previous harbor, there simply were not a lot of organized events, and no windward/leeward racing to be had. Moving to Mystic, there was an incredible amount of W/L racing, but the middle distance stuff was in short supply. The western end of Long Island Sound had the ALIR, The Block Island Race and the Vineyard Race. Newport had the Solo Twin, the Offshore 160 and now the Ida Lewis Race. All of them had double-handed divisions.

Rather than bitch about the long deliveries, I decided to start a new race. How hard can it be? Pick a course. Tell a few people when and where it will be. Show up and have some fun. You hear the story of the first OSTAR, started as a bar bet between Blondie Hasler and Francis Chichester for a single guinea, and you think to your self that it is going to be a snap. Well…..it ain't so easy.

A Course
I knew I wanted something that would be an overnight race, but that could be done in a weekend. I knew I wanted it to be simple, but with some memorable way points. Lucky for me, Long Island Sound starts with Race Rock and ends with Execution Rock, great visual landmarks. Going there and back adds up to 159 miles, and all of it would be coastal within the bounds of Long Island Sound, hopefully encouraging those that are new to the longer distance thing. And it does not get any easier than 2 waypoints to program into the GPS. Plus, the start and rounding mark made for a catchy name, Rock2Rock.

A Host
The first thing I figured out was that you really need a host club. Without a host club, you really won't be taken seriously by the rating organizations, and won't make their calendars. Without a host club, you will have to get regatta insurance on your own rather than through US Sailing. Without a host club, you don't have an initial base of possible participants. As it happened, I had joined Stonington Harbor Yacht Club when I moved to the Mystic area. A two year-old club formed by people tired of the wait for the established clubs, this was just the kind of anarchist organization that might be interested in my event. They had signed up almost 300 members, had an active summer sailing instruction program, an active cruising calendar and were interested in developing more racing opportunities. I put together a 12 page proposal outlining the event, what its comparables were around on the east coast, what kind of numbers those other events saw, some basic race information, the economics and the benefits to the club. When I pitched it to the Club's activity committee on a freezing January day, they gave me their hearty support.

The Boats
Who to invite? Because of my sailing preferences, there was always going to be a double handed division. PHRF and IMS were obvious choices for a US, east coast event. But I wanted an inclusive event, and hopefully one that would embrace yacht designs that were perhaps overlooked in other races. Hence a NEMA division for multi hulls as well as an IMS Big Boat division that mimics the new division for the Newport Bermuda Race. Some of the movable ballast boats will chew up this course in no time, but it would be a blast to see them on the starting line and we hopefully offer them an interesting and challenging race for their schedules.

The Race Documents
I must have read 20 different sets of documents, and ended up cribbing from all of them to come up with mine. While each race is a unique set of circumstances, all of them have learned lessons that are baked into their documents. My apologies to those I plagiarized from, but I think I have come up with a kicking Notice of Race, Entry Form as well as Sailing Instructions. Fifteen drafts later and 10 sets of eyes… we are ready for prime time.

The Scheduling
What a pain in the ass this was. Any race in this area that hopes to draw a reasonable crowd has to be after May, since most boats are not launched by then. It can not be any later than the first weekend in October, since many people pull their boats by then, and it gets pretty damn cold for overnight events. It can not be in July or August, since there is no wind on the Sound then. June is the month to sail to Bermuda or, if I am lucky enough to get a good ride, Hawaii. Finally, it not conflict with any other established events in the area since if it does it would piss off those organizers, reduce the number of boats you would get and reduce the chance that the local PHRF committee would support your event.

That leaves September. Work around Off Soundings and Race Rock and you still have to deal with the Jewish holidays. That leaves us with a September 10th start date.

The Marketing Effort
You can't do anything without a website. If nothing else, it gives you a place to send people to for the race documents and keeps your mailing costs down. The first step was securing the domain names, which by the grace of the internet gods were available. Frankly, I probably would have changed the race's name if they were not. Then, I shanghai'd a good friend of mine in the graphic design business to come up with a logo design and site design. Her work was then turned over to another friend of mine who coded up the site for beer and pizza. We spent hours and hours brainstorming on what made a good race site. The documents, for sure. But also a quick way to see who was entered. Obviously the standings. Some sort of bulletin board for finding rides or crew. And for skippers who might be coming in from outside the area, some sort of section that would give them logistical information about the area.

After two months of revisions and tweaking, we launched www.rock2rock.org on March 15. In the 4 weeks since, we have seen almost 400 unique visitors, over 470 visits, and almost 700 page views. Tiny numbers compared to Sailing Anarchy, but still pretty damn good.

Once the site was up, I could market the event. I put together a press release and sent it to 17 media outlets both local, national and even international. Many were sailing specific, other local media outlets were general news outlets. In all cases I tried to speak with the appropriate editor before I emailed them the press release. The response so far has been gratifying, and has helped drive traffic to the web site.

The same press release was also emailed to every Yacht Club Commodore and Race Committee chair that I could identify. Some have put up links on their website, and hopefully others will mention the event in their news letters.

In addition to the media, I also contacted the local PHRF organization (Eastern Connecticut Sailing Association) and the local multi-hull rating organizations (New England Multi-hull Association). Both have been supportive, and with the PHRF board we have not only been added to their season circuit of events, but have been made a double points event. The NOR will hopefully be mailed to both organizations members as part of their normal spring mailings.

Post cards will be sent to local sailors, letting them know of the event and pointing them to the site for more information. Calls have been made to Kings Point and the Coast Guard Academy, in hopes that they might put some of their off-shore boats in the race. I have also contacted the TP52 class and the organizers of the North American Mini Transat class to stir up interest within these communities.

The Economics
We are not running this race as a profit making venture, and want to have something that is fun and cheap. The costs as an organizer include website, marketing mailings, race insurance, T shirts, party food and drink, and awards. From website hosting fees to post card mailings, the start up of this race has involved several hundred dollars of out of pocket expense and it would have been more if I had to pay for the design work and the website coding. I also expect to have some expense when buying the perpetual trophies.

I really wanted to keep the expenses on this race down to encourage participants, and to achieve this I had to make both the after party as well as the T shirts an "a la carte" expense. The race is going to cost $60 in entrance fees. The T-shirts are being sold at cost, and are around $12. The party bracelets are also being sold at cost as well.

Sponsorship is a possibility that I just have not had time to pursue. Mount Gay takes applications in October for the following year and we did not have our act together in time for 2004. I also have friends at one of the major liquor distributors and we will also be approaching them for sponsorship. Landing some organizations that will see the value of the audience we will have will be a future endeavor, and can only help reduce the costs for the racers. If you are interested, let me know. I have a sponsorship proposal ready to send you!

The Finish Line
Over the past 3 months, I have probably put 200 hours of effort into this, and a bunch of my own money. From forming a LLC to "own" and manage the race to getting a bank account, from lining up photographers and worrying about event permits from the Coast Guard… the logistics have been far more complicated than I originally anticipated. But it has been a blast to do, and will hopefully result in a cool new race for my area that people have as much fun participating in as I have had organizing it. If any of you have any more questions about my experiences so far, drop an email to "Rail Meat" on the forum. If any of you are interested in the race, check out www.rock2rock.org and I hope to see you on the line. - Michael Hennessy.