$10,000 prize

The American Sailing League is offering big prize money for their first year

Long has the 18ft Skiff been considered the ultimate dinghy to sail or to watch sailing. As such it has often been the boat of choice for those wanting to make an impression on the general public. Most can remember the 18ft Skiffs being televised in the 90s on Sydney Harbour and this success has been talked about being emulated much before. Now the newly formed American Sailing League is having a no holds barred go at doing just that, and it would seem they are off to a good start.

Founded by Jeff Causey and Thomas Loughborough, the American Sailing League has a simple aim: to bring exciting sailing to the masses in the form of close to the shore events sailed in high performance boats. “There is a group of sailors in San Francisco Bay that sail 18ft Skiffs and have done for a while,” Causey explained to TheDailySail. “Most of them are organised around a group called the Skiff Sailing Foundation, started by a couple of guys a few years ago to bring that kind of sailing to the States, because we still lack a lot of it. We wanted to start putting on Grand Prix regattas where we could do something and make a spectacle to attract sponsors because most of us have been sailing these boats on a shoe string really, with only what we can bring in through the Foundation.”

This idea is not new. Back in the 1980s there was ProSail and the Ultimate 30s. Locally in San Francisco In the 1990s the 11m class managed to put on a successful series of events racing just off PIER 39’s Fisherman’s Wharf, managingto attract decent crowds. “They did it for a few years, it got really big, with all the 11s sponsored then a few people left and it all suddenly went away,” laments Causey.

With PIER 39 being such a major attraction with views out over to Alcatraz it clearly makes an ideal setting for spectacular sailboat racing. “We have been talking about doing the whole thing again in skiffs for a while,” Causey continues. “We had discussed how much better it would be with an 18 than it would a keelboat.” A small group of 18 sailors approached PIER 39 and it soon became clear they were extremely keen to find a way to get a sailing event taking place once again from Fisherman’s Wharf. However, simply turning up and racing is not really an option in such a venue so the American Sailing League was formed.

There may well be some at this stage noting that there is another 18ft Skiff League down in Sydney Australia. The American Sailing League, though, is very different. “We had the idea that if it takes off - and we do not know that it will - we will have the freedom to do other similar events in other places and potentially in other boats. That is the reason we did not call it the American 18 footers league or something like that,” Causey confirms.



As Causey points out the American Sailing League’s primary objective is to bring exciting sailboat racing to spectator on the shore and this means taking a a fresh look at the racing format. “Obviously there has been some discussion in the match racing world about how you make the format work well for TV,” he comments. “We are trying to go to the complete extreme so the races themselves will be something like 20 minutes each - in 18s that is almost unheard of. The entire point of it is to make racing thrilling for a crowd and something that you could put on TV and so by association, attract boats, sponsors and teams.”

Despite it being known as the American Sailing League to all intents and purposes the 2008 calendar is looking set for one main event. “There is an event on May 31st to Jun 1st and that is a sort of the first weekend,” Causey explains. “I guess that is a warm-up event, a kind of test event. The big weekend will be the second weekend [28-29 June] and that will be the cash prize race. That will be the big spectacle with onshore stuff on PIER 39 and the rest of it.”

As Causey explains the first weekend is intended as a sort of dry run. The plan is for very little to happen onshore that weekend, just giving the public a taste of what is to come on the water. With the racing taking place so close to the shore and the, unfamiliar to most, 20 minute race format it is also intended to give the sailors a chance to get to grips with the concept before the main event at the end of June.

Due to the weekend in late May being an effective practice event a small turnout of boats are expected. However, come the main event in late June Causey says they are hoping for up to ten 18ft Skiffs to turn out.

Perhaps at this point, other than the number of boats potentially attending the event, the American Sailing League could well be viewed as simply another well intentioned, but likely to fail venture hoping to make sailing, and the 18ft Skiff in particular, a bona fide spectator sport. But there are two specific aspects to this venture that show this to potentially not be the case. Firstly, there are the people who have committed to sailing at the first two events. The list reads as a who’s who of American skiff sailing. Already entered for either of the first two events are: Howie Hamlin, Charlie McKee, Zack Maxam, Patrick Whitmarsh, Chad Freitas with Dalton Bergan and Samuel ‘Shark’ Kahn still to confirm officially. In addition to these particularly well known names there are a host of other US Skiff sailors involved.

We were impressed with the potential quality of the fleet in the first year of the event, however, Causey explains that this is not a particularly recent development. “We have been working on the plan full bore since October. That is when we got permission from PIER 39,” he explains. “The idea has been tossed around for years though and people have known it is something we wanted to do. They always said ‘let us know if you are going to do something.’”

Perhaps part of the reason such a competitive fleet is due to attend the PIER 39 events this year is due to the prize money that has been put up. “The plan is to present a $10,000 cheque for the winner of the cash prize race, which will be the final race of the series,” Causey comments. “That will be something you will have to qualify for by racing the first Saturday of the June event as well as the first three or four races of the day on Sunday. That money has come out of our sponsor budget.” Clearly then $10,000 is a big draw for an event that takes place over the course of a single weekend.



To get up to this level of funding a number of sponsors have been brought onboard, including PIER 39 itself, Switch Clothing and Cabot Cheese. There are also a number of smaller sponsors and a few more companies that have to officially confirm.

As Causey said at the start of our interview the League is called the American Sailing League because they may have plans to race in a variety of classes – so where does he plan to take it next? “I would like to see the 18s as the focus point and we will always have those events that will make up the main circuit. There is room to bring in multihullls or Moths for example though. We want to only use boats that make sailing most watchable. We want to use boats that kick up spray, flip over and the rest of it,” he confirms.

For the time being, though, events are just taking place in the 18ft Skiff. In addition to the PIER 39 events the Ronstan Bridge to Bridge race will be a part of the Sailing League circuit this year and the US 18ft Skiff Championships will also come under their fold. So, what of the future? “There have been a number of other organisations that have tried to do the same thing in the States before. In my opinion they have tried to take on a little bit too much in the first year. This year it is all in one boat and is mostly one event to be honest. It all focuses on this PIER 39 regatta. So we will hopefully use that to show people what we do and then hopefully get some more sponsorship money. We want to have a couple of PIER 39 events next year and slowly build it like that,” Causey concludes.

It will certainly be interesting to watch the development of the American Sailing League. As Causey points out this sort of venture has been tried and has failed on several occasions in the US. However, this new League already seems to offer a suitable prize to make attendance worthwhile, has a spectacular, and proven, venue and has attracted a list of top names for the first event in the first year. It seems the American Sailing League has the best chance of survival of the many similar schemes we have seen. However, as with all these things its future is likely to be nothing to do with the organisation or skill level of the sailors or even the venue. If Joe Public watches the event and enjoys it, and turns up the following year then it is a success. If not, then nothing else really matters.