Skandia Squad announced - Skandia Geelong Week

by Stacey Jarvis on 29 Dec 2006 Skandia, title sponsors of Skandia Geelong Week, have once again offered entrants the exciting opportunity to participate in the Skandia Squad and be sponsored by Skandia for the January regatta.

To become part of this exclusive Squad, crews must be representative of one or more of Skandia’s core values – Courage, Passion, Commitment, Creativity and Contribution.

To be successful crews must apply describing how they best ‘live and breathe’ one of these core values. Winning applicants will receive an impressive prize pack and enjoy the privileges of being part of an elite group.

This year applications were received from around Australia and the standard of entries made judging a difficult task. 'We are absolutely thrilled with both the quantity and quality of entries. There are some amazing stories with close synergies to our core values. We thank all those who made the effort to enter and we look forward to hosting our winners' Jody Ellem, Skandia Australia Sponsorship and Events Manager said earlier.

The 2007 Skandia Squad skippers can be described as a diverse group of sailing fanatics. Representing ‘Courage’ is a mature age sailing enthusiast who has chosen to leave his local regatta to battle it out during Skandia Geelong Week. The South Australian crew of The Flying Doctor will make the trip across for the 4th year forgoing their club’s annual event. ‘Commitment’ is represented by a pair who is committed to their aim, 'to be the youngest crew to win our class in the 2007 Osaka Cup'. Runaway are driven to succeed and will not let minor obstacles stand in their way, 'Commitment means accepting NO excuses'.

‘Creativity’ will be represented by a person who had a dream, a dream to create a very unusual yacht. This yacht is the world’s largest trailer yacht (to their knowledge) and is capable of being towed by a 4 Wheel Drive. ‘Creativity’ is Radical, for a dream that inspired a great deal of creativity. ‘Passion’ is a Western Australian who through his obsession for sailing has given up his well paid job and traded in his car to combat his enthusiasm for his on water love. Pocket Money is a deserved member of the ‘Squad’. And finally ‘Contribution’ is represented by a local yacht whose skipper allows others to enjoy his yacht when often he can’t. ‘Contribution’ goes to the crew of Extasea who have 'worked tirelessly toward someone else’s needs' highlighting their endeavor and selflessness.

The winners:
Skandia Courage: The Flying Doctor – Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club (SA)
Skandia Commitment: Runaway – Royal Brighton Yacht Club (VIC)
Skandia Creativity: Radical 40 – (NSW)
Skandia Passion: Pocket Money – South of Perth Yacht Club (WA)
Skandia Contribution: Extasea – Royal Geelong Yacht Club (VIC)