Welcome to the Regatta Promotions Sailing Marketing Blog

As of April 4th there are 39 boats registered for the J105 North American Championship in Marblehead, MA.  Out of the 39 boats 10 are from different states including; MA, MD, NH, RI, TX, NY, NJ, FL, CA and CT and one other is from the province of Ontario in Canada.  Early entry estimates were hit out of the park and there is momentum to see over 50 boats attend this event.

Click the link below to see the current entry list:

www.j105northamericans.com

Free Sailing & Open House at SailMaine: Sunday, June 12, from 10-3pm, rain or shine. Free sailboat rides in Portland Harbor, shore-side boat rigging, and knot-tying demonstrations are among the fun activities.  Experience and learn what this nonprofit community sailing center is all about. Adults, teens and kids (age 8 & up) are welcome. SailMaine will provide life jackets but if you have one, feel free to bring it along.

Located on the Portland waterfront, past the Ocean Gateway Terminal at the end of the extension of Commercial Street (Thames Street), turn right and then left to enter long parking lot on the water. SailMaine is at the end of that parking lot.

For more information visit www.sailmaine.org or contact Sarah Helming, SailMaine Director of Programs and Events (207) 650-2085,   sarah@sailmaine.org

Points East Magazine has committed to being the media sponsor for the 2011 J/105 North Americans which will be held in Marblehead, MA August 10th through the 14th.  Points East Magazine will print 5 1/2 page full color advertisements with event information that will produce over 100,000 impressions for the event and its sponsors.  Points East magazine is a free publication that is distributed through marine locations throughout New England reaching from Downeast Maine to Southern Connecticut. There are over 125 J/105s  and 1000 sailors sailing these boats in the readership area alone. For more information on Point East Magazine visit:  http://www.pointseast.com/

For more information on the J/105 North Americans visit: www.j105northamericans.com

Marblehead Trading Company is pleased to offer a regatta package specifically
designed to make competing in the J 105 North American Championship regattaaffordable and hassle free.
Marblehead Trading Company J/105 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP PACKAGE INCLUDES:
Offload boat from truck, Owner prepped mast step, Launch
Haul, Mast unstepping, Load out to truck, Storage at yard for 1 week prior to regatta and 1 week after regatta.
COST: $800 per boat
Additional services are offered as well.
Click Here for more information.

J/105 2011 North American Championship Regatta Committee has set the entry fees for the event this August in Marblehead, Massachusetts.  A three tiered entry fee system will be used.
An early registration between December 2010 and April 1st 2011 will cost $625.00.  This early fee is less than the three previous North American Championships with the aim of producing 15+ entries before April fool’s day, which is no joke!
Regular registration between the first of April and July 1st will be $700.00.
Late entries after July 1st will incur a late fee of $75.00 for a total of $775.00 per late registration.
Online registration will be open soon at www.j105northamericans.com

PORTLAND, Maine, April 2, 2009 — Maine’s sailing regatta season will get off to an early start on Saturday, June 6, when sailboats will race on courses outside Portland Harbor to raise funds for SailMaine, a local community sailing program. The Gulf of Maine Ocean Racing Association is teaming up with SailMaine to host the event, which will provide a wide range of benefits for SailMaine, its students, and the skippers and crews of the racing boats that participate.

The regatta will be an opportunity for current Gulf of Maine racers to make connections with new sailors and potential crew members, and will give SailMaine students the chance to experience the thrill of racing on larger boats.

“Our students learned on smaller boats and sailing dinghies, and some have been looking for an opportunity to move into bigger boats,” says Sarah Helming, director of SailMaine’s High School and Junior Program. “At the same time, Gulf of Maine skippers and crews are anxious to clean out the cobwebs that developed during their long off-season, and some may be looking to add people to their crew list. This regatta will bring everyone together.”

Each racing boat will be assigned a certain number of SailMaine students who are new to Gulf of Maine racing. Sail Maine coaches will evaluate the experience, skill level, and aspirations of students and match them with the appropriate racing yachts. Some of the students are from SailMaine’s junior and high school programs; others may be participants in the organization’s Adult Sailing program.

Funds for SailMaine will be raised through entry fees, sales of sailing apparel and other items, and a benefit dinner and party following the race.

The post-race festivities will be open to the public, but advance reservations are recommended. People interested in dinner tickets should contact event chairman Sarah Helming at SailMaine: sarah@sailmaine.org or 650-2085.

Sail Maine is a non-for-profit, community program that offers sailing instruction to youth and adults, promoting the values of leadership, self-reliance, sportsmanship, and respect for the environment. SailMaine’s web site is www.sailmaine.org.
The Gulf of Maine Ocean Racing Association is a not-for-profit, charitable corporation formed to act as an amateur athletic organization to promote yacht racing, including international yacht racing in the ocean waters of the Gulf of Maine. GMORA maintains a web site at www.gmora.org.

This weekend March 20, 21, 22 2009 is the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland, Maine at the Portland Company on Fore Street in the Old Port.

Regatta Promotions had organized a booth with Gulf of Maine Ocean Racing Association (GMORA), Portland Yacht Club, Southport Yacht Club and Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club.

We have great information about these events and cool free stuff to people that show up and say they saw this blog entry.

I also have a limited amount of  VIP tickets.  Want one?  Call Carter White at 207-671-7750 cell phone to get one or bring a friend and get two.  But call soon since I only have a few.

Hope to see you all this weekend.

The show is Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-4

A long time Casco Bay racing scene fixture passed away last week.  See the Obituary below.  George sailed a memerable J24 named Trick or Treat. Often with a black cat or other holloween type image on the spinnaker, you could see george leading the very competitive and large local J24 Fleet 43.  The season trophy for best performance of a Fleet 43 boat is named for George as his legend of competing lives on.

Recently I was going through some race results from Portland Yacht Club in Falmouth, Maine and noticed that George at the young age of 80 won the PYC Lightship race.  The race is a twenty plus mile all day race from Clapboard Island to the location of the lightship buoy and back.   Often the race produces a wonderful long windward beat and a long and fun downwind sled ride.

George Tonini PORTLAND — George Tonini born in Trieste, Italy, Dec. 20, 1922, passed away Feb. 19, 2009. George was a Merchant Marine and trained on the Italian navy ship Amerigo Vespucci. During WWII he was an Ensign and while cooperating with the U.S., he served in The Royal Italian Navy as navigator on the Italian submarine Goffredo Mameli.

He was stationed in many different places, but the most interesting was Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay. He also worked as a dispatcher and translator at the American Motor Pool for the Allied Military Government in Trieste, Italy.

He settled in Maine, married and worked the rest of his life as a Chef and Caterer in several different capacities. (If you were one of the lucky ones you would have tasted his food). He was a member of the Portland yacht Club since 1964, he taught many people how to sail, and was an avid J/24 racer until the ripe age of eighty.

There was so much more to his life then we can put into words. He loved life, the ocean, sailing, dancing, cooking, playing poker, fishing, the Caribbean, and most of all, his wife Dorothy of 50 years. He was loving, vibrant, flirty, energetic and cute. We will miss him dearly.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Tonini of Cumberland; daughter Juliana Tonini of Windham, son Daniel Tonini of Portland; along with his granddaughter, Aria Tonini of Alfred; daughters Adele Harnois of Portland and Linda Beck of Gorham, sons Eric Tonini of Ft. Myers, Fla., and Giorgio Tonini of Trieste, Italy. He has five grand children.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at the memorial Chapel of Independent Death Care, 471 Deering Ave., Portland.

Memories may be shared, condolences expressed and a guest book signed at the obituary page at www.independentdeathcare.com

Donations may be made to: American Stroke Association 51 U.S. Route 1 Scarborough, Maine 04074 or Animal Refuge League 449 Stroudwater St. Westbrook, Maine 04092 George Tonini

Here is the reaction from the law makers in Maine after the wonderful response from our loyal readers and fellow sail boat racers. I guess the state does have better things to do than to police our pfd wearing.

Hello, and thanks for writing –

LD 164 has been withdrawn and will not be proposed this session. The bill was not drafted the way I and the other sponsors wanted – we were concerned primarily with the 15 deaths suffered last season, mostly due to lack of PFDs being used on canoes and kayaks -

In any event, the bill will not proceed further – thanks again for writing, and please do so anytime.

Thom Watson

Rep. House District 62 (Bath)

trwatson@street-law.com

The state web site hasn’t been updated as of yet but I am told it will be updated soon. Things sometimes move a bit slow up there in Augusta.