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Aussies claim podium places A class worlds


QB2

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He sails as a Seppo now. At least he's come over from the dark side - used to sail dinghys around Noosa but got an A for the Florida Worlds in 07 and like most can't go back.

Maybe he doesn't drift fast - nothing over 5 knots in that regatta. Nice on the beach though.........

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I had a dig on SA and other forums about the lack of up to date reporting on the A's and got slapped on the wrist. Sadly once again the International A and Italian race HQ websites promoting the worlds didn't keep up with results.

It was claimed most event organisors were also competing, but in previous Worlds they'd had staffers/journalists putting up race descriptions and video within hours. Pity it didn't happen this time.

Meanwhile the website for the F18's also claimed it will be presenting live GPS tracking, commentary and video. None of those links work and they're up to race 3 already with minimal story and images published.

another opportunity lost for cat sailing

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I'm afraid I have to agree with the wrist slappers on this one QB2. While I was also disaapointed with the level of reporting I fully understand why. The results were posted on the event website in a timely fashion however, and a number of other sites including SA, Sailworld, catsailor.com and Catsailingnews had commentary and photos. We would all like it to be better of course, however the events are run by volunteers and the only money available comes from the nomination and subscription fees paid by participants. Sponsorship of any substance is very difficult to come by for these events. Which Worlds events are you talking about who had staffers/journalists putting up stories and videos in hours. I've sailed 5 A Worlds and organised umpteen National and State Titles and they have all been staffed by volunteers and participants doing the best they can with very limited time available. The participants in Italy spent very long hours on the water in trying conditions. Many had family on site as well and simply didn't have the time to set up and deliver the content we would like.

There is an opportunity coming up in your backyard for you to contribute to cat sailing. I'm sure the organisors of this year's AUS A Class Nationals would welcome your input to the media profile of this event. The mainstream metropolitan media are not interested in this type of sailing event, so you could take video footage on the water, do media quality stills, do sailor interviews after races, compile stories, get all this out to various websites, blogs and press services and update the event website. Pretty simple really. Oh, and pay for your own accommodation on site like all the other volunteers running the event.

Guess we'll hear from you.

Cheers

AUS9

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You should hold the Nationals on Lake Killamperpunna. We had 3 news helicopters,I dont know how many walking journalists and by 8.15am there were 4 light planes overhead. One news helicopter came down to 2 masts height telling people to smile etc then when it banked to move away about 6 cats nearly went over. We had wind from not much to 18 knotts. To top it off Outback Spirit escorted travel put in $25,000 sponsorship

[This message has been edited by madboutcats (edited 10 July 2010).]

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Sounds like it was a great time - wish I had been able to go.

The publicity side really illustrates the point. The mainstream media are really only interested in one off curiosity events. If it were held each year there probably would be little interest. We just have to work hard on the sailing media for the routine national sailing events. Regional media for local events are a bit better because they often are short of content.

Cheers

AUS9

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I still don't think you get it. There is no excuse for any club hosting a worlds NOT to have race results/photos up within hours of completion. It is basic record keeping and file saving.

At the same time as they save the results, print a copy for the noticeboard, they cut and paste to website. Voila!

The onus is on event/race organisors to take a long hard look at their basic race operating methods and include ways to generate media photos/videos and/or race commentary at the same time.

If organisors do it right their start and safety boat personnel are ideally placed for the closest action vision/sailor tactics and race progression.

You don't have to have professional photographers, just images and lots of them to pick and choose the best.

(Ideally every start boat should have a video camera rolling to back up recalls, protests, mark rounding and finishing order.)

It is not hard, it just needs organisors to realise they can include their media generation as an integral part of running the event.

.

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We get spoiled in the digital age; wanting live streaming webcasts, twitter updates and GPS tracking maps.

Where it's hard to post immediate updates, it's unreal to see a well edited video clip after - even a year after!

Right now just reading a decent report on the series would be great. Anyone?

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QB2 - the race results were up quickly on the event website and photos posted on a number of other sites. The results were done as quickly as was allowed by the very light conditions. Waiting for a large fleet to finish in under 5 knots, get back to shore and process results takes some time.

From speaking to people who were there the reality of this event was that it was as boring as batshit. Many hours on the water in dead light breeze and heaps of photos of boats drifting around on glassy water. Move on - there's nothing more to see here. There's lots of intersting discussion about curved boards - go to the thread on SA.

QB2 - no one has heard from you about volunteering to improve publicity for the next Nationals. All your ideas require some people to get off their bums so how about it??????

Cheers

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If the association wants a hand I will help out where I can including before the event with media releases to Qld media and sailing outlets.

Do you want to be official class spokesperson to front the microphones and cameras?

We'll need to get suitable TV vision so an A fleet dicing with each other off brisbane will be the go

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Tony - the first link you posted is the IACA site which contains organisational info for the class and also posts news when people have time - probably well after the event when they get home. In this case the second site you posted was the event website. It did feature some sailing photos through the event but as you say now has a few presentation pics. It comes up in English on my browser but I have a Google toolbar set to translate everything to English - very useful. This site had some reports and a lot of photos http://catsailingnews.blogspot.com/search/label/A-Class

But as I said earlier the racing was dead boring and there really wasn't much to report - people got sick of trying to talk up a drifting race time after time.

QB2 - volunteers are always more than welcome. No problem for me to front the mike and cameras. We also of course have numerous world and national champions as well as Americas Cup team members to spark interest. If you need early vision there will be A fleets at the very venue - Lake Cootharaba Allboats Regatta 21-22 August and Cat Challenge 6-7 November.

BTW for those who know Ben Moon - he was very quick to lose his Seppo status and get in the AUS photo at the worlds presentation!

Cheers

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