Its money time for the Antarctica Cup

by Rob Kothe on 20 Feb 2003 Round the world yacht racing is many a sailors dream, but as history shows the cost and logistics stop many campaigns.

Last year West Australian businessman and yachtsman Bob Williams decided, a new Round the World Race could be successful but it had to be exciting for entrants, have contained costs and it had to deliver real value for sponsors.

The Fremantle Australia based Antarctica Cup race organisers have planned a Round the world non-stop south ocean circumnavigation race of 14,600 miles.

‘We have a great course, the southern ocean at its warmest, for a non-stop fully crewed round the world race for monohulls, with some big prize money to recoup costs.’

But that’s not enough. Yacht racing has a habit of become very expensive very quickly. The America’s Cup no longer belongs to the millionaires, now it’s the billionaires as Team New Zealand have discovered to their displeasure.

In fact for any long race campaign, like the Volvo Ocean race, with its new 70 footer ‘box rule’. the development, training and race program will require sponsors, entrants and crew involvement for a minimum of 2 years.

Around the viaduct last week figures like US$15 million were being tossed around for the next Volvo campaign. But this is for a well-known, well-established race and given history from the last few years’ 8-10 entrants is a likely number, well down from the twenties and teens of early years.

Insurance and safety costs alone have driven down numbers for short ocean races like the Sydney to Hobart which have come down from 120+ boat fleets into the 50’s.

Yet while ocean races struggle for fleets, One Design short course racing has been growing in popularity. In one stroke it reduces the enormous expenditures for marginal (winning) benefits. The boat is standard, the sails, instruments, deck gear is standard. The emphasis shifts to teamwork and costs plummet as teams fly in, train, race & fly out.

Say Williams ‘We decided to make the Antarctica Cup successful, that One Design was the way to go. It is easier to explain to the public, much cheaper to mount a campaign and better value for sponsors.’

‘We provide the identical boats, sails and equipment, there is a mandatory 60 day training period, then a race of 45-55 days. Fly in fly out in 4 months.’

Sounds great, there is 25 months to the start gun in March 2005, how is it going?

Bob William’s explains progress. ‘Its now 11 months since we launched the race.

An exciting course, the richest race in yachting history, with a unique 'skins' format. A race where the ready to race yachts is provided in the participation fee. After the race the participants takes home his/her maxi-yacht! !

There have been well over 200 downloads of the notice of race (from the antarcticacup.com site). Since then a good spread of enquiries have come forward.‘

‘Seven syndicates have reserved race entry slots Roy Heiner, Paul Cayard, John Quigley's BritXL, and the Californian Greybeard Syndicate headed by Buzz Boettcher. Now there are three Australian groups, Grant Wharington who campaign’s the Wild Thing’s, Mark Rodereda from Western Australia and the two circumnavigators Jon Sanders and David Dicks, both Perth locals.’

‘I think there are a lot of people sitting on the fence, waiting to see what is going to happen with the race and that is fairly standard.’

‘It is a question of us identifying the 8-10 or even 20 groups who are really serious about our race and want to be involved. Then sitting with them and closing the deal, so to speak. That is the mode we are in right now.’

‘We are capitalising on the great interest in the race and wanting final commitment so that we can get the process rolling.’

‘Our original concept was that we’d build the boats here in Western Australia; using the magnificent boat building facilities we have here. ‘

‘But in reality with the build time we have left, we have 22 months; the boat building yards here are too busy to be able to deliver for the 2005 race.’

However there are number of major boat builders around the world, who do have the capacity to deliver the number of boats we need by December 2004.’

‘By the end of March 2003 we want to be close to our 5 minimum entrants. If we can achieve that then our production slots will be practical.’

‘By the end of March, we need to see deposits from entrants but on top of the seven there is quite a number more potential entrants that we’ve been in communication with who are keen to join in’

‘There are quite a number of groups with the capacity and the ability who want to do this race. Particularly as they will be representing their country.’

‘We are currently identifying and working with these groups. We are keen to have an Italian entry, a Japanese entry. A British entry, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Spain hopefully. We need a South American entry too…Brazilian or Argentinean and of course New Zealand and Australians.’

‘We have certainly been buoyed by the support for the event from the potential competitors but also from Fremantle community and the West Australian State Government. They are enormously enthusiastic about it. They see it as on opportunity for us to develop a major event here, which will stay here.’

‘The State Government is offering limited financial support and as much logistical support as it can. The State Government Events Corp has been extremely active and they are very much behind the event.’

‘The City of Fremantle is just dying for it to happen and they too are assisting with logistics. They are anticipating the hospitality they can offer, as is the wider community.’

‘We have been careful with the timing for the race. The boats will be available for the mandatory 60 pre-race training period from the 1st of January 2005.

‘The race starts in March 2005 and it sits out by itself. The Volvo race for instance is scheduled for November 2005. One of the advantages of this event is clearly a great training opportunity for Round the World teams wanting solid southern ocean experience.’

‘One of the things which seems to be working strongly in our favour is the growing desire of the public and sponsors to see truly National teams, which is why we have the simple rule, which is that if a sailor with for instance a New Zealand passport, can only sail on the New Zealand entry. So that makes us different from the Volvo Race or the America’s Cup. ‘

‘Modern races are all sponsor driven. You only have to look at the America’s cup to see how countries are keen to support a national effort. That certainly provides a focus for international media. ‘

‘The great south ocean is an awesome place. We already know that the media exposure for this event will be huge, One design, national teams, the southern ocean, big prizes. ‘

‘For the wider public this can be much more than just a boat race. It’s a non-stop 55-day endurance sports event. Testing both physical and psychological ability to the limit.’

‘These days you can measure and send from back each day, information on how the crew are coping with the difficult environment. Blood pressure, heart race, all the scientific data. ‘

‘We will have people in TV studio analysing why one boat is going better than the other. Older and more experienced, or because of say different stress levels or nutrition etc? ‘We are expecting mixed crews and these may out perform the all men’s teams, with a better skill mix and emotional mix.’

‘As communications get better and better, it’s clear that this element can really open up the event to a much wider multi-media audience. ‘

‘We will have a dedicated media person on each boat, pumping out the material.’

‘Virtual Spectator type coverage, is already excellent and by 2005, it will be difficult to distinguish the animated from real coverage and this will be quite riveting.’

‘It is a true nation versus nation event in the world's