2012 EFG BANK PAN americans... which 3 events make it up?

David Chapman · December 10, 2011, 05:13:58 AM

Hi guys

which events will go to the 2012 championship?

cheers

dave

Justin Scott · December 10, 2011, 11:06:47 AM

We are currently discussing this with EFG International and Bacardi.

If anyone has ideas to make it more fun for the participants or ideas that help us give back to EFG in terms of ROI on their generous sponsorship (its approaching 6 figures now) then please feel free to get in touch with me. I would really appreciate input and some volunteer help.

Obviously it should be anchored in Miami (EFG's Americas HQ) around the Bacardi Week.

It would then include Bacardi at Newport which is probably being folded into Newport Race week as one regatta.

Then conclude with the North Americans at Marblehead.

One idea we are playing with is to score some feeder events, to be scored as an alternate to Newport. Newport is in the North East. If other regions are coming to Miami and the NAs then it seems fair and fun that they should also have a big local event that could be used to score. We experimented with this by including Long Beach Race Week as an alternate last year. We have to refine based on that experience. But maybe an alternate on Gulf Coast, West Coast, South East.....and ...why not? Perth?

So

Bacardi - Miami
Newport Race Week (alternates Gulf, West Coast,South East and Perth)
North Americans - Marblehead.

What do you think?

Justin Scott · December 10, 2011, 11:27:14 AM

Bacardi - Miami sign up is here. http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=569

Jeff Jones · December 10, 2011, 01:44:37 PM

This is easy

Make it a 5 event series, one in each area of the country with a special 6th event (see below)
1)   Miami to keep EFG happy (and it covers what's left of the SE fleet)
2)   Newport or whatever up there (to cover the NE)
3)   Sarnia, detroit or whatever those guys pick (to over the Midwest)
4)   Long beach or whatever they pick (West coast covered)
5)   Houston Tx (covers texas, NO and any other boat's down here)

Scoring:
1)   No throw-outs. (puts a lot of emphasis and reward to traveling. Nothing I'd like to see more than an average sailor get to game 6 because they drove 1000 miles to sail with us)

2)   To qualify for EFG scoring you must compete in 3 events (reward traveling, hard for a someone who borrows a boat and kicks tail to win, oh – rewards traveling.)

Event 6 – the EFG smack-down and Awards

After the final event, the top three teams get to race in the final smack-down held in Miami (December 2012)
1)   Boats' and sails are provided (thanks EFG)
2)   Travel and lodging covered (thanks EFG)
3)   Fancy dinner with lots of booze covered by Justin, Zimm/Ben, Paul or Efg. (thanks whomever)
4)   Kattack tracking so we can keep up with it live (thanks EFG)
5)   OTW anarchy or someone else streaming the races live, so we can watch (thanks EFG)
6)   Awards afterwards, still streamed live

This would almost have the feel of a pro circuit, without being pro circuit. You could tell anyone who wants to qualify they have to sticker up with EFG. You could probably pay for this if you stopped putting ads in sailing world. I don't think those things sell boat's.. sailors that love their boats and their fleet sell boats. Make this a fun, exciting and something that some hot-shot that has a M32 will want to come and win.

Maybe it was just me, but last year the EFG series didn't mean anything. How many of us know or really even care who won the series. Give it some teeth, make it fun to keep up with and in the end @ Miami, a good time to watch LIVE.

If it works, in 2013 take the Smack-down to Bermuda.

To be honest, I'd be motivated to make all of the regatta's in an effort to qualify for that Miami gig.
If you eliminate the throw-outs, someone who hits all the events is probably going to beat out Brad Boston if he misses one. It would push the hot-shots to make all the regatta's and it would be fun to have Somers, Brad and the other big-dogs down in Houston.

Jeff Jones · December 10, 2011, 01:47:07 PM

Add; might get a guy like winnard at all the events because if Ullman was smart they'd pay the guy's expenses to get the exposure.

Hm, maybe each team in the big game (miami) brings their own sails. Might end up with Team Ullman, Team Doyle / Boston and Team North duking it out. That would be kind of cool to see.

Maybe even make the number of boat's that qualify for Miami be based on how many boat's qualify for the circuit. If you had (5) 50 boat regattas i'll be willing to bet EFG would spring to send 5 or 6 teams to miami.

Peter Beardsley · December 10, 2011, 01:52:43 PM

If you eliminate throwouts, there's no need to have a minimum number of regattas to qualify -- it is what it is. Just take the top 5 or 10 from the standings at the end of the year -- the road warriors will be pushed toward the top of the standings depending on how we score DNCs. Alternate system: win an event on the circuit, get an automatic berth in Miami, and then the next top 3 teams from the scoring system or something.

We can debate whether to include NAs as a mandatory event each year to encourage NA participation -- no NAs, no chance at top 10.

That said, a budget for El Grande SmackDown would be pretty high under Jeff's idea. Give the guy credit, he thinks as big as the state of Texas.

Jeff Jones · December 10, 2011, 02:04:51 PM

Sorry, DNC = number of competitors plus one. That's how you hurt the fella's who dont show up.

Peter Beardsley · December 10, 2011, 03:06:21 PM

Quote from: Jeff Jones on December 10, 2011, 02:04:51 PM
Sorry, DNC = number of competitors plus one. That's how you hurt the fella's who dont show up.

No, if you really want to hurt the fellas who don't show up and make it a road warrior series, it's # of competitors plus something ugly, like 30% of the fleet size. So if you miss a 10-boat regatta in Sarnia, ok, you should/could have gone, but it's only three points. But if you miss a 20 boat Texas regatta, 6 points, or a 30-boat Miami regatta, 9 points. The idea being "you really shouldn't miss the big ones and kill everyone at the smaller events." It also helps the road warriors a bit more since if you're 9th out of 10 at a smaller event, you're not all that different from the DNCs if DNC is only worth 11.

Justin Scott · December 11, 2011, 11:34:18 AM

Tons of good ideas here.

Jeff's idea of having the series conlude in Miami is a new one..... fun for participants and might be attractive for EFG. Not saying that the 3 boat finale is a winner but maybe Miami can be begining and end of series rather than just begining. I'll get feedback.

I do like Jeff's idea for spending more on making the concluding event exciting (tracking etc - better visual coverage) but I think it should be open to all.

Some existing feedback:-

1.Careful about creating the feeling of a Pro event. Not sure that most members in the class want to go in the direction of pro events and Im not sure that EFG is ideal sponsor for a pro event. EFG pattern of sponsorship is they have been big supporters of corinthian sports. Eg, in motor sports they sponsor vintage car racing (Goodwood etc). They also sponsored owner rider polo. In sailing they sponsor Mandrake in Asia, a Melges 24 team in Europe seeking to win the Corinthian awards and in Americas, the Bacardi events and the Viper class. My impression is that we like our amateur image and our nobody paid to sail rule and so its good to find sponsors that buy into that.
But I take Jeff's point some of the glitz and look of a pro event can be fun as long as we preserve the opportunity for amateur owners with unpaid crew do do well and have a good time.

2.We should only be going to Miami because we love racing at Miami and sailing on Biscayne Bay. If we do enjoy racing at Miami, then EFG is an appropriate sponsor for us. I think we do.

Justin Scott · December 11, 2011, 11:44:20 AM

3. The Pan Am series is designed to have an emphasis on reasonable ease of participation, aiming at Vipers prepared to do some seasonal travelling. It is not really aimed just at the hardest core road warriors. By definition it is at most a 3 event series. But I throw out the idea of the feeder events (yes Houston, Long Beach, Perth, Newport etc) as alternates with Miami and NAs being the constants.

4. EFG are okay with including the NAs as one of the regattas. That is really useful from a class perspective, providing sponsorship for Marblhead 2012, houston 2013 and Long beach 2014. So I thoink we should continue to include the NAs if we can.

5. Agree we need to work on improving a scoring system that is easy to understand. We also need someone to volunteer to be the scorer. We can invest in yachtscoring or regatta network but we need someone to supervise the process.

Justin Scott · December 11, 2011, 01:21:11 PM

I think the two key concepts of the Pan Ams can be summarized as a

-Anchored by Miami and the NA Championships.
-# of events allows that some international competitors (Uk and Bermuda etc) can complete the series. More importantly,the series is doable for most anyone who is going to Miami and NAs (just one more regatta).

So option one would be the two anchor events (Miami and NAs) + a choice of large regional events as feeder events. Feeder events would require some kind of percentile ranking score.
Option two. Just three events, probably Miami, Newport and NAs. Score all three events to KISS.

David Furna · December 12, 2011, 08:11:01 AM

Can we add a points spread and an Over/under gambling system to the Grand Championship? I got $100 bucks on Jackpot and I'll give you 3secs a mile kind of bet?

Dave

quote author=Jeff Jones link=topic=1167.msg11132#msg11132 date=1323542677]
This is easy

Make it a 5 event series, one in each area of the country with a special 6th event (see below)
1)   Miami to keep EFG happy (and it covers what's left of the SE fleet)
2)   Newport or whatever up there (to cover the NE)
3)   Sarnia, detroit or whatever those guys pick (to over the Midwest)
4)   Long beach or whatever they pick (West coast covered)
5)   Houston Tx (covers texas, NO and any other boat's down here)

Scoring:
1)   No throw-outs. (puts a lot of emphasis and reward to traveling. Nothing I'd like to see more than an average sailor get to game 6 because they drove 1000 miles to sail with us)

2)   To qualify for EFG scoring you must compete in 3 events (reward traveling, hard for a someone who borrows a boat and kicks tail to win, oh – rewards traveling.)

Event 6 – the EFG smack-down and Awards

After the final event, the top three teams get to race in the final smack-down held in Miami (December 2012)
1)   Boats' and sails are provided (thanks EFG)
2)   Travel and lodging covered (thanks EFG)
3)   Fancy dinner with lots of booze covered by Justin, Zimm/Ben, Paul or Efg. (thanks whomever)
4)   Kattack tracking so we can keep up with it live (thanks EFG)
5)   OTW anarchy or someone else streaming the races live, so we can watch (thanks EFG)
6)   Awards afterwards, still streamed live

This would almost have the feel of a pro circuit, without being pro circuit. You could tell anyone who wants to qualify they have to sticker up with EFG. You could probably pay for this if you stopped putting ads in sailing world. I don't think those things sell boat's.. sailors that love their boats and their fleet sell boats. Make this a fun, exciting and something that some hot-shot that has a M32 will want to come and win.

Maybe it was just me, but last year the EFG series didn't mean anything. How many of us know or really even care who won the series. Give it some teeth, make it fun to keep up with and in the end @ Miami, a good time to watch LIVE.

If it works, in 2013 take the Smack-down to Bermuda.

To be honest, I'd be motivated to make all of the regatta's in an effort to qualify for that Miami gig.
If you eliminate the throw-outs, someone who hits all the events is probably going to beat out Brad Boston if he misses one. It would push the hot-shots to make all the regatta's and it would be fun to have Somers, Brad and the other big-dogs down in Houston.

[/quote]