Sailing Again...

After a week of sponsor hunting, it is time to get back out sailing again. It seems too long since I was last out (over a week anyway!)

The jobs list on a Class 40 never ends!

· Sort / set up asymmetric pole
· Spinnaker and genoa halyards covered and moused back
· Collect red kite, deck bag from North hut
· Radar reflector on
· Main onto track
· Reefing lines in
· Main block check
· Spectra line to gate roller furler in place of metal gate
· Aft nav lights on (after replacing push pits)
· Raymarine ram brain off and nke auto working

This is just a sample of what we need to do before Tim and I sail the boat to France on Thursday. The plan is to leave Port Hamble in the evening and head out into the Channel and then down towards Brittany (about 400 nautical miles in all)

The grib file below shows the expected weather at 2100 on Thursday when we plan to leave. Mid channel 20 knots northerly – perfect... power reaching all the way.

Shouldn’t take us too long to get down past the Channel Islands, mind you it looks like some rain is on the way too. But I think we will be getting wet from the spray anyway so the rain will just wash the spray away.

Once we get there, we then have to get the boat ready for her survey.

If all goes well, then the plan is to bring her back to the UK soon after and start getting her branded up as the People’s Boat.

Thanks to everyone who has already sponsored us and put their picture onto the website. We will be getting them all printed onto transfers and put on the hull for everyone to see.

We still have a long way to go with the campaign though and still very much need your help if we are to hit our target of raising £150,000 for charity.

All you need is a picture or logo you want to have on the website and hull of the boat, goto www.peoplesboat.com and click on ‘buy pixels’. Decide where you want your picture to go and upload it. Then link it to your website and pay for it. You don’t have to have a PayPal account, you can do it with a credit card through PayPal or you can BACS it through. Just email me and I will give you the account details for People’s Boat Ltd.

Don’t forget, we can’t do any of this without your help – it’s easy to say ‘I’ll do it later’ – later never comes!

More to follow soon on the sail to France...

Newsletter

Well what a whirlwind the last 10 days have been!

It started with a shorthanded training weekend with Brian Thompson and the team at SORC. Based out of Haslar marina in Gosport it was a really well run few days with a good mix of classroom and on the water sessions. I was acting as co-skipper for a friend who is preparing for the AZAB race next year in which he intends to do the outbound leg to the Azores single handed and then the return leg two handed – good luck with that one Rob...

Over the weekend I was receiving various emails from a couple of new potential sponsors, Sailing Networks and Dream Sailing. By the end of the weekend both had agreed to become sponsors of the campaign and already their logo’s are on the website. Both of the new sponsors are also promoting the campaign to their customers, Dream Sailing in the high end charter market and Sailing Networks to their own global network of members which totals over 40,000. This campaign thrives on coverage, so thanks guys for helping out. The campaign website as always is www.peoplesboat.com where you can see the virtual boat and the current sponsors.

Earlier in the week I got a call out of the blue from a well known Yachting publication interested in running an article on the campaign, so we will see what happens with that one, but it looks very promising.

On the boat front, GBR43 returned from the USA on Friday and I was able to be re-united with her, my first time on board since racing back from the Azores. This is the boat we are hoping to secure for the Global Ocean Race next year and talks are well underway with the current owner – fingers crossed and watch this space. Once we have secured the boat and moved it to our base then we will be able to start with our corporate hospitality program of sailing days. Apart from sponsorship these sailing days are important to us to help us run the campaign.

And finally...

Last night I was asked if I could do an interview for a very high end lifestyle / property company. Each month they produce a magazine that is available by subscription only. Next month will be a feature on the People’s Boat campaign going out to over 1.2 million people. Now that’s what I call coverage and something we could only have dreamed of a few weeks ago. Great news for us and also for all those already with us.

Last thing for me to do is say a great big THANK YOU to all those who have already sponsored us and for those that haven’t, then come on and get onboard – especially before the big story next month!

Dream Sailing

The latest sponsor to appear on the side of the People's Boat is luxury charter company Dream Sailing.

Based in the South of France, owners Michelle and Alan take a real pride in what they do. Their fleet of three 55' Jeanneau yachts and the 90' Dark Star make for an impressive line up. They also have an 84' yacht under construction and like the rest of the fleet it is specified to the highest level. They also have access to some of the biggest and best yachts in the world. Each boat comes fully crewed so there is no need to get involved with the sailing - unless of course you want to.

Why crewed charter? Well it offers privacy and exclusivity as well as fun and excitement. Each boat has a full selection of 'toys' including rib and water-sport equipment.

The fleet is either owned by Dream sailing or exclusively managed by them, so you will not find the boats anywhere else.

Press Release 11/05/10

Press Release 11/05/10

People’s Boat campaign gathers momentum...

‘How do you find over £600,000 to fund a round the world yacht race campaign when you are not a multi-millionaire?’

That was the problem facing Alex Alley when he came up with the concept of the People’s Boat and his entry in the Global Ocean Race 2011/12. Instead of having a single sponsor funding the entire campaign, which in the current economic climate is all but impossible, Alex decided on splitting the load and now has a campaign that is open to everybody, from the armchair sailor to philanthropist to the man in the street, each paying less than a night out down the pub. This not only involves them in the campaign and gets their picture on the actual race yacht, but also helps the team raise over £150,000 for charity. Never before has there been an opportunity for everybody to literally be on the boat, right from the outset, in a two handed round the world yacht race.

1 boat, 2 crew, 8 months and 33,000 miles. People’s Boat – Let’s sail the world together.

The People’s Boat is also one of the few campaigns to announce the full team for the race. Alex Alley and co skipper David Thomson (brother of Alex Thomson – Hugo Boss) have both raced at international level and between them have 2 circumnavigations, 2 world sailing speed records and over 250,000 miles of ocean racing. They are not in this race for the experience – they intend to win it.

The website is now live and people are already putting their pictures and company logo’s onto the yacht – www.peoplesboat.com. The site contains links from all the squares to each person’s own website, be it a business page or a personal one like face book.

Preparations are well under way with weekend race training coming up with Brian Thompson. Alex commented ‘We have also been looking at several different designs of Class 40 and have settled on an Akilaria. Both David and I have experience of Akilarias and believe them to be a design that is very easily driven hard for long periods of time – something that is very important for such a long race’.

Alex and David are also offering the opportunity to send regular updates to the press to keep readers up to date with the preparations for the race as well as during it. Alex also writes a regular blog which can be accessed at www.peoplesboat.blogspot.com. Here you can find out the latest sponsor news and also see some impressive video footage from his last race.

This is why I love Class 40

I keep getting asked to put this video on my blog.

It is one of the clips I use in my talks and also promote the People's Boat Campaign and shows some great sailing in Class 40's, including my race back from the Azores.

Turn the volume up and enjoy :-)

End of the talks

Well after spending the last two weeks on the P&O cruise ship Arcadia giving talks to the passengers, it is time to get back to the sponsorship trail.

Giving 8 different talks was quite a challenge, but the theatre onboard was superb, something to rival anything in the West End. Initially the numbers were quite low, with most people thinking it was a talk on how to sail. Once they realised that it was a story of how I got into sailing and what it is like to race around the world, through the Southern Ocean and round Cape Horn, interest grew rapidly as word got around the ship. From then on we were getting audiences of several hundred - more than the 'Celebrity' speaker onboard :-)

I think the rough weather video footage helped. It was great, standing on the stage while the video was playing, looking around at all the stunned faces. As the story unfolded, some were crying, others just listening in disbelief as we criss-crossed the ocean dropping off crew during the now famous 'leg 2'. (Yes that is me in the picture, on stage dwarfed by the huge central video screen and the two smaller screens either side).

I love telling the story, and it was a fantastic chance to plug the campaign to a captive audience. Many wanting to help with sponsorship, and some even giving me cash there and then. I'm expecting some more sponsors to join in when the ship returns to the UK in a couple of weeks time.

While in Antigua I bumped into Richard Shead, head of marketing for Yachting World. He was fascinated in the People's Boat story, suggesting they run an article on it, and would pass it onto one of the features writers. This campaign thrives on PR.

More blogs coming soon :-)

Alex

Off talking - again

Well having just come back from talking at a sports sponsorship event last night in Ipswich, I am now about to embark on a 2 week cruise to the Caribbean. But it's not all play - I am the guest speaker on board and will be talking to a captive audience of around 3000 people, so hopefully pick up a few sponsors for the campaign. You never know who is listening.
One of the pieces of advice I gave last night was to talk to everyone about the campaign. The individual £25 sponsors really do make a difference, after all that is where over 1/2 the funding is coming from.

Still waiting to announce a title sponsor for the campaign. We were hoping to have something in place before yesterday as it would have been good to mention the main sponsor,
and the cruise! - well that is a dream marketing opportunity for any company, but not to be this time. However, I have just been booked to go again in September on another 2 week cruise, so if there is a title sponsor signed then there will be another opportunity to get promoted to another 3000 people!

I'll be on email on the boat and will try and update the blog if I can.

Cheers