Yeah, the "media coverage" isn't close to what was promised. We've yet to be interviewed and have seen almost no pics of the first finishers each day (no pics of us or Kirk) finishing. If we're going to rip the gaskets off the bottom of my boat hitting the beach at Mach 5 with the kite up, at least get me a cool picture or video! ;-)

How many times did you have to replace the gaskets, and were they the "new" style?

The coverage was nil. Lisa Herendeen posted stuff on FB and that and the tracker (which I gave up on today,of course) was the only way I could follow anything. Still don't know the placing. Sad , considering this was supposed to be THE year for the Fl.300. I've got an idea, "Let's keep our race a secret."

Congrats to you and Brian wherever you ended up.

Ended up racing my boat (long story), but it has half gaskets. Didn't replace any during the race, but we'll see what the look like when I get it home.

Tracking today was an issue, don't know why.... I do know that there was almost no cell coverage for a lot of the race.

I inquired about the race coverage and was told to send people to Damon.

I'm not going to make excuses for anyone or hopefully criticize volunteers, but I'm just going to speak from experience - having been a competitor, a ground crew member, a "team leader" (whatever that meant) and a pseudo-media guy -

Media is tough for this race. It always has been. The nature of the beast is that your media subjects are basically unobservable for 99% of the time unless you have a high powered drone or helicopter. It's not easy.

Add on to that fact that if you're part of a team or the race committee and you're doing double duty, media falls by the wayside easily. I can tell you that after getting in from competing, the last thing I wanted to do was boot up the tablet or laptop and pen a story. When I was a ground crew member, after spending 2 hours under a boat in the sand gluing new gaskets into a dagger trunk, the last thing I wanted to do was boot up the laptop or tablet and tell everyone what was going on out there.

The only time I felt that I did an adequate job was when I live streamed the race from my cell phone back in the day when live streaming was just catching fire. These days its almost stupid not to do a periscope or youtube live stream with any number of connected devices. The Florida coast has SOME LTE deadzones but back in 2008 when I did my coverage from my OG Droid, I was getting solid signal at most Tybee checkpoints.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that to do media properly for this race, you need a dedicated resource whose JOB it is to do media. BK and JW did a great job in 2006, and I still go back and watch those videos with sentimental nostalgia. Hell, I have the DVD downstairs (I just tossed it into a moving box) However, with the tools available these days on social media, covering these races should be a lot easier than in years past. One guy with an iPhone and a few external battery packs (and a good data plan) could stream the whole race from start to finish.

They had that (x2) and this was supposed to be THE year.The fact that you never even realized that is telling of the coverage failure. Just regular updates w/ positions and unofficial finish positions on the FB page would have been fine. Just SOMETHING.
I think they focused on a post race sponsor seeking promo video, but that misses the point and is a waste of resources. The audience (us)for these type races care about it while it's happening.

Daily reports, photos and videos were posted on thebeachcats.com and the fl300 facebook page

Yes, that year was certainly "palpable"

I wouldn't take that as an indication of the media team's job. I'm not on fakebook so anything posted there is non-existent to me.

Real time: No stories ,No updates as boats finished, No interviews, Nothing of substance except reporting thunderstorms one day. I've followed plenty of these and sailed in more, and this is the worst I've seen. Sponsors will look to that kind of thing to see if there is any R.O.I. This does not bode well.

Tad summed it up pretty well. You guys are asking for professional PR coverage for the cost of hotel room and maybe a meal or two which is simply unrealistic. Even back in the day during the peak the coverage was only so so, in my opinion.

The race was well run and the organizers priority was the sailors and in my opinion that is exactly where it's supposed to be. At the end of the day it's those that sail the event that promote the event and get sailors to the beach. Those sitting at their computers constantly complaining about being under served are being counter productive. Yes proper coverage would be nice but its not even remotely a reason why I do this race and I think that goes for most if not all the teams. We are self funded so PR coverage isn't a priority for us and this thread didn't inspire much effort on my part to provide any kind of updates. Yes Todd I'm looking squarely at you!

Wait, I thought you just said "Just SOMETHING - Just regular updates w/ positions and unofficial finish positions on the FB page would have been fine. Just SOMETHING."

I see dozens of on the fly updates, pics, stories, videos and unofficial (and official) results on the sail series facebook page and dozens more on the Beachcats fb page and more on the beachcats website ....
geesh

Not at all. All I'm asking for is real time Facebook posts of who is crossing the finish line. Cheap , easy, and low tech.That's a minimum if you expect to grow as an event. Lisa Herendeen came pretty close and she was just having fun.
I am glad to see the R.O. are making it about the sailors.That's how it should be. There isn't a fortune to be made in it. I've done my own website updating and sponsor seeking, and to make it work for teams who aren't self funded a little bit of effort has to be exerted by the R.O. If not then they need to express that.Nobody expects the teams to do it. If distance racing is to survive much less thrive, these events can't be word of mouth and in a news vaccuum. I'm sure that's a little too big picture for you, Ding. When those MYC youth try to come back on their own and need some sponsor help,or anyone for that matter, what do you tell the potential sponsors,"Pay for my race". When teams like Dixie and others who are stoked to do their first big distance race don't see anything about a race like this ,how can they get turned on to it?
I think this year reinforces how much work Craig Van Eaton did in the past.

+1 to both Todd and Tad here.

One of the issues the Florida 300 faces is the checkpoints are close. I think this is good for the teams in some ways, and helps bring new people in (I think the first leg is what the Tybee 500 first leg should have been, not the second longest leg of the entire race), but it makes the ground crew and media coverage work difficult at best. Most days I didn't have time to grab lunch while ground crewing for the inaugural Florida 300.

I'm glad the race committee is focused on the sailors, that is what they should be focused on. I think budget needs to be put aside for a dedicated media guy in future editions, that is what the A-cat fleet is doing and they are probably the largest growing fleet of high performance "beach" cats in the U.S at present.

Couple corrections to this:

1) Turns out the dutch team beached, then the boat sailed itself off the beach, flipped into the surf and that is where the mast failed. Also, it was the Nacra Holland parts dude onboard, not the owner of Nacra.

2)Team Tavernier had been sourced a replacement rig but had enough other issues to call it quits.

Quite the year of weather, really sounds like if you made it before the thunder hit you did well, otherwise you were hours behind.

From my observations, the A-class can spend as much $2,500 (may be sponsored) on a drone and media coverage for a weekend of racing. I find different feeling among competitors on wether that cost is worthwhile in entry fees.

I can see the FL 300 coverage as being pretty pricey to do it right. If its an event for the competitors, it may not be worthwhile.

The Race 2 Alaska did a really good job with trackers, updates, etc but the best was the "stories" put up about each team before the start. A blend of who's who and smack talk all rolled into a paragraph or two.

Everglades Challenge was another well documented event.

Wonder who paid for all that?

Distance races can't use drones (except for checkpoints), but plenty of background can be developed prior to the event itself (history, course, obstacles, tech, boats, etc) and be plopped in the real-time "narrative" of start/finish positions, live coverage, etc.

Where the sponsors can see ROI is product/name placement in these "fill" pieces which can be produced/edited by the media team (and even used to pitch sponsorships) at their leisure.

Couple of suggestions:
- now that some of the blisters have healed, get all the stories you can from each competitor and add to the "history" section of next year's event.

- Special focus on what made this year's event challenging (the weather) and how each team reacted and/or dealt with it. Nothing wrong with some sit-down interview type video clips from the sailors.

- any onboard video needs to be collected for a "montage" type clip or two. Combine with voiceovers of teams on how they prepare for this event, secrets of success with this type of distance race, teamwork, etc. (stuff to attract non-adventure sailors and make it less scary to try...)

- teams can build/submit their own stock footage during this year (with their own sponsor focus) to be included in next year's event. I'd say 60 second clips should work well... Sailing, boat handling, etc.

- of course, any gaffs or bloopers always make it fun

- for PR ROI, someone get 'stock' footage of the host hotels at each venue and a brief interview with the hotel official on their property and impression of the race.

+1
Somebody gets it.

those that can't do.... have plenty of suggestions

I see where Todd is coming from on this. This has been done well before, with minimal technology and cost. It isn't rocket surgery. It just needs to be a priority.

When any cat event gets good PR, we all benefit. Let's figure out how to help one another pull this off more consistently.

Mike

Why not a detailed bio from each team when they register? Bio of the skipper, crew, boat, sponsors, and other equipment?