Here's my take on getting sponsorship money. When I talked with the VP of Marketing at Delta Air Lines about throwing some money my way for new sails, he said he would rather spend a whole lot more money, to sponsor an EVENT, vs. a single individual. Why? Because at an Event, they put up banners and put their stickers on ALL the boats, etc.
Look no further than the "Audi Melges 20 Championships".
http://www.melges20.com/ Audi didn't sponsor one person, they sponsored the Entire EVENT.
Also, I think I saw some big mono-race sponsored by VW, and then there's the Heineken Cup in St. Maarten.
http://www.heinekenregatta.com/ Or the Mount Gay Rum regattas.
http://www.sailbarbados.com/events_MG.htmlOr the Rolex Regattas:
http://www.rolexcupregatta.com/index2.php That's the direction this needs to go, in my opinion.
The sponsors want visability, they want top billing, so give it to them.
Make it a huge beach party for the spectators, beach volly ball, a spectator fleet of big cats, maybe some Hobie Wave rentals off the beach for the on-lookers, stuff like that.
If I were king, here's what I would do. I'd get someone huge to sponsor a week long event, but it would really be two 3 day events. The first 3 days would be a big all classses regatta, which would serve as the Nationals for All cat classes, ie. you run the A's, the F18's, the F16's, the Hobie 16's, the Waves, etc. all at once, on 3 separate courses of course, but everyone all in one general location, big parties every night, like the mono guys do at Key West Race Week.
At the end of the first 3 day Nationals event, the top 3 from each class get to then race in the Alter Cup regatta, wich would be held on 10 (or 20) chartered boats, like our traditional Alter Cup, but the event sponsor is paying for the charter fee. The rest of us can hang out and watch, or maybe have a side regatta, or a Pro-Am, or a "Get a newbie out" type regatta, on a separate course, while the Alter Cup is going on for the last 3 days.
It would be like Tradewinds, where all the classes get together, and then it would be the Alter Cup, where just the top crews from each class race.
