Performance Sailcraft's online competition - the Best Ever

by Jeni Bone on 29 Sep 2009 Chris Caldecoat from Performance Sailcraft Australasia, the Central Coast based NSW Laser dinghy manufacturer launched the Win a Laser competition in March 2009 on www.Sail-World.com and the competition closed at midnight on Friday 25th September 2009.

The prize was a Laser dinghy ready to sail away. It includes: Boat, Spars, Foils, Sail, Sail numbers, Battens, Turbo Kit, Rope Kit, Tiller and extension and Beach dolly. Retail price AUD$9,200 NZ Retail $11,495.

Caldecoat commented about the response before announcing the Win A Laser competition winner.

‘Canadian triple Olympian Bruce Kirby designed the Laser in 1969. Since then 196,000 Laser dinghies have been sold around the world and are being sailed in 122 countries on six continents and at the Olympics.

'This is the most popular sailing boat in the world and we have been very pleased to have run such a major competition giving one as a prize. The response to the Sail World online competition was phenomenal.

'We want to thank everyone who took the time to enter and complete the survey.

'From a Performance Sailcraft point of view, we’re amazed and we really appreciate the number of people who entered the competition, answered the questions and gave us very detailed statistics on how to better service the market.

'This competition has generated interest from people of all ages and walks of life, with the largest number of entries coming from the young sailors, the masters demographic and parents with young children. We had Olympic medallists, world champions, national champions, masters, grand masters and lots of junior sailors enter.

16 year old Holly Curtis from Hamilton in the North Island of New Zealand, has been selected by the judging panel as the very worthy winner of our first Win A Laser competition.

'I had the pleasure of talking to Holly after her win; she was definitely both shocked and excited and looking forward to switching to a Laser Radial. We are arranging for her to have some Laser coaching.'

Today Caldecoat was all smiles, back in Sydney after another international trip, servicing clients in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.

He talked to Marine Business News about the competition on its sister publication Sail-World.com today.

'Running an online promotion and competition, which requires a 20 question survey completion has provide us with invaluable data, thousands of contacts, great sales leads and provided very high quality data on how we should service our market. This was our Best Ever promotion.

'This data stops our decision making team making decisions on a half a dozen anecdotes, with everyone wondering should we market this way or another way.

'We ran this promotion and competition at what turned out to be a perfect time. Sailors were pulling back; keen to sail in this inexpensive class where the boat has such wonderful resale value.

'This is a specialist market and there is a specific pattern of how people want to be looked after in this small boat sailing market.

'This large body of data, larger in number than the readership of many Asia Pacific sailing magazines allows our Directors and Executive to say OK, we’ve got statistics that say this so let’s invest here.

'We will be running another Sail-World competition in 2010, bigger and better, you can be sure.'

Sail-World New Zealand editor Richard Gladwell commented on the weekend 'We are very supportive of our youth fleets. Our Laser sailors are doing very well internationally, we have a lot of depth in our fleets and for us at Sail-World New Zealand, its very pleasing to see such a major prize go to a young Kiwi sailor. Given there were thousands of entries it was great to see that quite a number of young Sail-world NZ readers made the short list. We’d like to have seen them all win a Laser.

'Congratulations to Holly and its great to see the Hamilton Laser fleet will continue its expansion. Our thanks to Performance Sailcraft for participating in the competition and their very strong support of Sail-World.'

The final words from a very happy Chris Caldecoat from Performance Sailcraft. '‘As a result of this competition, we have a lot of dealers screaming for trade-ins! We encourage anyone to see their local dealer about trading their late model Laser in for a new one, so we can get more out there.

‘Now is absolutely the best time to trade in your late model Laser for a new boat, with dealers across Australia and New Zealand offering smashing deals! If you have been putting off trading in your beloved Laser, rest assured that a quick trip to your local dealer will probably result in you leaving with a new boat.'

More information at www.lasersailing.com.au