Information for Sponsors
Background
The Tall Ships Races started in 1956. These races, over the years, have attracted more and more public interest and have become the biggest sporting event after the Olympics. Currently, there is no real Chinese participation.
The sailing vessels are manned by mostly cadet or trainees who are taking part in sail training, 50 percent of whom must be aged between 15–25 years of age. No previous sailing experience is required. Many of the Tall Ships from the world’s nations mainly focus on conducting Sail Training and Educational activities by undertaking adventurous voyages. The participating vessels range from yachts to the large square-rigged Sail Training ships run by charities, schools and navies of many countries.
Sail Training in China
The China Sail Training Association has been founded to spark interest in sail training in a nation of 1.3 billion. China is the only major nation not involved in sail training and the ChinaSTA has been set up to bring a Chinese presence to the Tall Ships events in 2014.
The China STA does not need its own Tall Ship, yet. We will be recruiting suitable young Chinese adults, many of them studying already in Europe, and finding berths for them on vessels already entered in the Tall Ships events.
Our ambition is to raise enough money to fund a Tall Ship for the China STA, until then significant gains can be made by organising and raising awareness of sail training within China and the Chinese community living abroad.
The Hungarian STA has similar aims. It sent trainees in 2013 on a Dutch Sail Training Ship- The Golden Lion. Both our organisations have planned the same course to achieve our aims. One difference is that Hungary has already sent trainees on a Tall Ships race. And Huingary does not even have a coastline!
Advertising advantages of sponsorship for CSTA
Our aim for 2014 is to promote Sail Training to Chinese, wherever they are in the world. We be using the following media: Social media (especially in China , such as QQ), TV News, Newspapers (confirmation has been received from The Financial Times Sailing Supplement team ), Magazines, and a Five hour documentary.
Opportunities for Sponsors
The Tall Ships Races provide a major opportunity for a sponsoring company to engage in a youth-oriented, educational programme of activities and to build or strengthen their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) profile whilst simultaneously driving their commercial awareness, preference and purchase conversion opportunity to a much wider audience. Therefore sponsorship participation with a Sail Training International race event has the double benefit of commercial opportunity and charitable support.
Hence, this is an extraordinary sponsorship opportunity – The largest public attendance of any sports event of exhibition in the world
l Logos on website, crew uniforms
l Reception at Tall Ship’s Races
l Opportunities to meet officials from Chinese Embassy and Chinese business people
Sponsor a trainee
n Allocated a personal trainee
n Estimated media exposure
n Financial return on the sponsorship is comparable with standard advertising.
The Tall Ships’ Races can be compared with other similar sporting events, such as UK Sailing Events (around the isle of wight), America’s Cup, Olympics
Future events
As we acquire our own ship and run our own sail training programmes, which will have more emphasis on leadership. To give focus to the sailing from port to port, we will have a portable maritime, trade & Chinese culture museum to display at our destinations. The target date is 2016. We are helping Sail Training International to organise Tall Ships events in China.
To sponsor China STA, email Wing Chan wing@chinasta.org