SYRF reaches $100K Challenge Grant milestone

by Dobbs Davis on 9 Apr 2014 The Sailing Yacht Research Foundation (SYRF) is pleased to announce that over the past year, and after a Fundraising event held in San Diego on February 8th, that $100,000 in donations have been received to support its mission to provide the science to understand the performance of sailing yachts through research and education.

This milestone has in turn prompted SYRF's receipt of another $100,000 in funds, thanks to a generous challenge grant established by an anonymous donor to SYRF.

'This is an outstanding achievement, we are extremely grateful to all our donors and supporters,' said Steve Benjamin, Chairman of the Board for SYRF. 'The generosity everyone has shown helps illustrate the importance SYRF has to everyone who has an interest in learning more about performance sailing. In the long run this will benefit everyone in the sport: sailors, designers, builders, race managers, even media and spectators as we better understand high-performance boats as they become faster, safer, and more competitive.'

Over the past month SYRF has already been busy putting these funds to work: data is being generated in SYRF's Wide Light Boat Project, a study that will characterize the performance of modern planing yachts; the new structure of a new online Data Library to archive past research results is being designed now; Technical Director Myles Cornwell has given a presentation on SYRF to the International Technical Committee meeting of the ORC in Delft; and preparations are underway for the second HPR regatta of the season starting this week at Charleston Race Week.

These activities follow presentations made on SYRF-related topics at the Fundraiser in February, which are available on the SYRF website in PDF format. Media members interested in receiving commemorative USB drives emblazoned with the SYRF logo that have the presentations in the original Powerpoint format (including Stan Honey's spectacular Emmy-nominated video images from the America's Cup), please contact Myles Cornwell at myles@sailyachtresearch.org if you are interested to receive one and he can arrange shipment to your address.

For more information on SYRF, click here, or contact media@sailyachtresearch.org.