52s circuit 'like North American sports league'

Quantum Managing Director Ed Reynolds on the new TP52 circuit and how winning helps their sailmaking business

Managing Director of Quantum Sails, Ed Reynolds has not only helped put the Doug DeVos-backed sailmaker more firmly on the map in the race boat market, but has also been the driving force behind Quantum Racing’s successful TP52 campaign. The team won the Audi MedCup with Terry Hutchinson on the helm in 2008 and were victorious again last year with a new Botin & Partners design and 32nd America’s Cup winning helmsman Ed Baird driving.

With Quantum Racing once again heading for the Med this year, so Reynolds is also deeply involved in the new circuit for the TP52s.

Did he feel that the writing was on the wall for the Audi MedCup? “A little bit. The overall structure of how the business was put together before just made no sense, it wasn’t really sustainable. We had a governing body that was putting on the events and there was no agreement with the owners who were trying to satisfy a sponsor who wanted access to the show the owners put on. Ultimately at some point it was going to come to an end. I was a little surprise that it ended as it did with World Sailing Management terminating the agreement, but they are a for-profit company and it was going to be a lot of work for not a lot of profit. So we didn’t want it to happen, but we weren’t completely blindsided by it.”

Allegedly World Sailing Management, the company behind the Audi MedCup made a loss on their sailing series in 2011, but Reynolds makes the point that it was their company and they had no obligation to be transparent about the series’ finances.

So now the owners – “some serious individuals” as Reynolds describes them - are themselves backing the new TP52 circuit with at present at least five committed to it.

Reynolds continues that in 2011, the six TP52 owners spent around 26 million Euros to put on a show in the MedCup. Yet they had very little say in what went on and this came at a time when WSM was trying to provide more value for Audi, by for example looking at the possibility of holding a regatta in Kiel on the Baltic – which didn’t go down well with the owners.

With a sponsor now dealing directly with the owners, or at least an individual representing them, this relationship should be easier, Reynolds maintains. “Now when you are dealing with the guys that are coming to put the show on [the owners] and they have a business interest in fulfilling those requirements, we think it will be a different dynamic.”

Reynolds believes the current aim is not only to confirm that TP52 racing in the Med will continue, but to demonstrate that it has a future.

“Where I think we are at right now is reintroducing this competition, reintroducing this level of sailing. 2012 is obviously going to be a transitional year. We are committed to keep this thing going. It is the best show in monohull sailing, ever, and we are saying ‘hey, this is what we are doing, we are going to keep this going’.”

Thus, it is Operation ‘stop the rot’. “The damage when something, like what happened here, goes on, everyone [crew] is looking for other work and people [owners] are saying ‘I must dump my boat’.”

Reynolds says that they still plan to fulfil the requirements of sponsors and maintain a media presence, but equally they want potential owners to regain trust in the circuit and be encouraged to build new boats and take part in years to come.

“Every year, we wouldn’t even know the dates and where we were going, until February or March. Unequivocally, even with the dysfunction of the organisation, it is still the healthiest keelboat class in the world. Six new TP52s were built in 2011 – I don’t think there were six Soto 40s or Melges 32s built in 2011. So there was nothing broke with the boats and the concept and there was nothing broke with the overall organisation – it was just a business relationship which turned upside down.”

With the owner buy-in, Reynolds compares the model of the new 52 Sailing Series (as it has been dubbed until such time as a sponsor is found) to that of North American sports leagues, where on the one hand individuals own their own assets (ie teams) and they compete aggressively with one another, but on the other they must show unity in running the sport as a whole. Reynolds acknowledges: “It is a tricky business relationship for sure, to keep those things separated with the right structure to keep it going and move it on and make it legitimate and interesting.

“The North American sports leagues have an independent commissioner. They make the rules, they run the commercial business, they work the deals with the sponsors, they mediate problems between individual teams, etc. We have thought for a long time – sailing is incredible, a great show and to me it is the ultimate internet sport, the cadence of it, the timing of it. You can check in every 10 minutes. It just works.”

Reynolds believes the 52 Sailing Series can be commercially viable. “We don’t think it can be for 100 million, but we think it can for the best teams in the world with 2.2 million in capital assets, operating to compete for the podium at 1.4-1.8 million [running costs] a year. You are in the range. When Audi audited their media impact it came back at 71 million Euros. So you are talking numbers that have some viability.”

Reynolds also observes that the media impact didn’t seem to be dependent upon the fleet size. “From 2009 until 2011, as numbers went down, the media impact dramatically went up. Six boats made more of an impact than we did two years previously with 16 boats. So it is down to the quality of the sailing. There will be a lot of challenges to make it work, but I think we have got the right people around to do it.”

A question mark remains over integration of the IRC 52s and the TP52s in the new circuit. Reynolds agrees that there are a number of different opinions when it comes to this, but he personally doesn’t believe that integrating the IRC 52 fleet has a long term future. “There was nothing broke with the competitive nature of the MedCup - that is where I think it needs to be. Introducing some of the IRC boats almost at a pro-am kind of level, where they can come in, get a taste of it and put a few more boats on the line - I don’t believe the future of this series is with IRC boats. Absolutely the future is boat for boat. The box rule is brilliant, it works.”

He cites Quantum Racing’s participation at Key West where they competed with their boat unchanged from its TP52 mode and raced against several more highly rated IRC 52s, including their IRCed new sistership Interlodge, but still they won. And that was with owner Doug DeVos at the helm rather than Ed Baird. “We were at a huge disadvantage technically - and we did okay.”

As to their own team this season, Reynolds admits they still have four or five positions to fill in the crew, but states that Ed Baird is set to continue as skipper. “We are fortunate because we have access to some really good guys, who will come in because they know they will have everything they need.” Crew selection will come down to the weight, skill set and personality of the individuals. “It has been a strength of the team that we have done a really good job with that,” he says.

Unfortunately it seems that owner Doug DeVos, President of the international direct sales giant, Amway, will once again not sail on board when the boat races in Europe. “There is no one in the world who loves sail boat racing more than he does. It is humbling, because the responsibilities and the business interests he has and how much he works - if he could do it, he’d be there every week and he is a really handy sailor. This [Key West] is only the second time he has seen this boat. Last time he was one of our grinders! This week he did a great job. He had steered the boat for two hours before the regatta. He is a very athletic sports-minded guy. His family has interests in professional sports leagues in the USA. They own the Orlando Magic baseball team.”

Obviously, Quantum Racing’s involvement in the Audi MedCup is not for fun – Quantum's aim is to sell sails. In this respect Reynolds says they have achieved success with their sails, winning two seasons ahead of North-powered boats and since 2008 when they first joined the MedCup, the market view of Quantum has been transformed. “I remember in Alicante [in 2008], I did 20 interviews and it was like ‘are you crazy – do you think you can really do this?’ But I knew we could.” He cites Key West as a prime example where Quantum boats this year were on the podium in nine classes and they won seven.

“We have had continuous gains, well into double digits, mid-teens, each year since 2008. I think we are the only sailing industry company that is growing, maybe one of the only marine industry companies that has been growing over this period. It is a testament to everyone in the company who bought in. Everybody kind of took a hit financially in the belief of it, to say ‘hey, we want to allocate this into these directions, because here is what we think the impacts are and when we do this you need to raise your skill set to take advantage of what we have done’.”

For the last five years, since Reynolds has been in charge at Quantum Sails, the company has been taking consolidation measures, dispensing with lofts “that weren’t going to have the capability or resources to grow with the vision that we were going to create or what we were doing wasn’t in the best interest for their skill set and we didn’t have parallel agendas.”

Reynolds says that they finished this consolidation around September last year and they are now entering “a constructive phase”.

Of the competition with North Sails, he compares it with taking on Microsoft. “We will be there. North is a great company, but they have never had to compete against a company like ours.”