The Goal
As a minority sailor I have always found myself in short company. It is to be expected. We live in a world where the minority races haven’t had as many advantages thrown their way. We are only two or three generations removed from the end of segregation. My family was fortunate enough to gain some of those advantages in life. My grandfather was one of the first African American psychologists, and my father followed in his footsteps. I am very grateful for my family’s wealth. Although I did not follow in that path I know it is a major stepping stone in my ability to do the things that I want to do, such as be a figure in the world of sailing. The education I received as a child, the opportunities I received, and the connections with other wealthy individuals, whether it be in the neighborhood or on the water or at school, all factored into what drove me to where I am today. For someone to say ones upbringing does not define them, and would point to someone like Steve Harvey, an African American man who was homeless as he tried to make his way in Hollywood and is now one of the biggest names in television, I’d ask them to point out how many white Americans are in his place. The struggle is different for those of different financial backgrounds and unfortunately, due the mistakes of America’s forefathers, that means the struggle is different for those of minority races. I have witnessed both the wealthy experience and the impoverished experience up front and I can confidently say that if the roles were reversed for the people in such situations they would play out the same way. If a wealthy trust fund inheritance child were to be placed in a home in a low class neighborhood with rampant crime, unaffordable rent, paycheck to paycheck living, an insufficient education system, they would struggle just as the person in that situation who happens to have a different skin color. Alternatively, if you placed a kid from the streets in an affluent area, gave him a proper education, gave him space to breathe financially and gave him the contacts to put him in touch with the people he needed to help him succeed, he would thrive, just as much as the other child, who happens to have a different skin color than him. Wealthy business influencers like to use the term “work ethic.” It’s ironic in a way that these people at the top talk about work ethic, and the types of people they see that do and do not have it. They do not truly see work ethic the way it truly is. They see work ethic from their lens, in which the harder you work and the more hours you put in, the more you climb the ladder and the more successful you become. In those wealthy influencers’ eyes if you are not climbing the ladder and rising to the top that means you are not working hard enough. That works well for those on a corporate ladder but that does not translate to every career field. That does not even translate to every business. The term on the streets is “hustle.” Hustle and work ethic are synonymous when you break them down. Hustle is just work ethic for someone trying to survive and climb out of their situation to a better one. Take the person that hustles with 3 jobs, trying to take care of their family. Give them a week of time alone to build a plan and let them propose their business ideas to you and you might be blown away. The end goal of this entire project is to allow people with less opportunities a fun way to get contact with those who can make things happen for them. By providing a different resource to each party involved we can introduce people into the world of sailing and blur the wealth inequality line.
The end objective of this plan is a self sustaining business that is built up by the people to serve the community. It will be achieved in a three phase plan. The final phase being self sustainability by 2028. Phase one of this plan is to gather funds from grants and sponsors to compete in an event in 2023, the Global Solo Challenge. The Global Solo Challenge is a long and grueling race around the world utilizing the Southern Ocean. It will take approximately eight months in the vessel available to us to sail this 23,000nm race. This is no small feat in the sailing community. You are guaranteed to have many sets of eyes on you prior to, during and after the race. This is where we will be able to take advantage of the race to its fullest extent and capitalize on it. We will be gathering sponsorships to help fund the race, with the intention of forming a permanent partnership with as many companies as are willing after the race. These sponsorships and the exposure we will get during the race, by way of livestreaming location, sending race updates, weather updates and progress trackers will help us build a social media platform that will lead to more sponsorships. Currently, the Instagram accounted associated with the journey so far is amassing an average of 6-8% growth a month, and has one sponsorship already. This is not including three months of cruising content that is yet to be edited and uploaded to youtube and clipped to instagram as of the time of this writing. That will provide nearly three months of content, which will immediately end with the start of race preparation, which will take a year, all the while being uploaded to show progress. Then after that race preparation period we will have an eight month sailing period to grow, which will conclude with the skipper of the vessel returning with that eight months of footage to be edited and uploaded to Youtube. The estimated amount of media content this will provide is well over thirty two months of content. This means we will be consistently uploading new content for nearly three years. At this point the Youtube channel and Instagram account should have enough followers and subscribers that it can naturally grow just by posting new things. If however that is not the case it will not be a problem. As previously stated we have many sponsorship targets due to our connections in the sailing world and we can rely on those targets to fund our push into phase two of plan if necessary.
Phase two of the plan is a soft transition period from a pure racing and sailing team into the end goal of making sailing life more accessible to lower income citizens. This phase will incorporate a hybrid approach in which we step away from single hand racing in order to get people on race boats who would not have had these opportunities otherwise. Getting people with minimal sailing experience on the world stage competing in races around the world is a platform we can use to show other people with a similar background that anyone can do it. Our goal in this phase is to make a statement to the sailing world using their own platform. By competing in these races with minority crewmembers, and more importantly, being talked about, we can get the word out about our cause. Normally high end racing sailboats are unaffordably expensive. A new IMOCA 60 boat is over four million dollars to make. Every new race boat they make they have innovations to improve their speed. However, when they are done with the older models of these boats they sell them for a fraction of what they were worth. On the market as of the writing of this piece, there are IMOCA 60s for sale for less than $180,000. These boats do not get purchased by the high end race teams because everyone at the top wants to win. However, since our goal is to make a statement more than it is about winning, we stand to gain something from these less equipped, slower boats. The newer boats are faster, lighter, can foil, can point upwind better but at the end of the day they are held to the same one design standard. This means that even though we may not be as fast, to the general public, to the minority kids one day hoping to be something, they see African American sailors aboard the same type of boat as those at the top of the class. Now the other part of this plan involves paying for the maintenance and storage of the racing boat, a costly endeavor depending on where in the world you are. The plan for this is to buy a small marina. Marinas in the Chesapeake area vary in price but can be anywhere from $500,000 to $900,000 for a low end marina that can accommodate the size boat we are looking to purchase. This will greatly decrease the costs of maintaining such a boat, as we can do all of the maintenance for the vessel in-house. Another advantage to buying a marina is that we can truly embed ourselves in the community and hire local people to give them an opportunity to be a part of the program. In addition to servicing the race program, the marina will be fully functional and service transient and local boaters, which will help fund the race program. Once the race boat and marina are secured and functioning at full capacity we will have a four year campaign with the boat, competing in as many high profile races as possible, assuming the budget and the sponsors allow it. Races on the proposed itinerary include the Volvo Ocean Race, Sydney to Hobart, Fastnet Rock Race, and the 2028 Vendee Globe. At the end of this four year campaign the goal is to have sailed in every major race with the IMOCA class boats and make a name for ourselves, the crew can branch out in the sailing world, spreading our reach, and the boat can return home.
Phase three will begin once the boat returns home. Global sailing races require large sums of money. Phase one and two will be focused on gaining notoriety and funds for large scale events and large scale purchases. That is clearly not a long term sustainable platform, so the plan will shift as soon as phase three starts in order to make sure that the chance at a future in the sailing world for minority sailors remains available and does not burn out. Here we will also focus on the youth program. As stated in the introduction, making connections with affluent people is a staple to becoming economically successful yourself. There is no better time to connect yourself with future leaders than during childhood. Children have no preconceived notions about a person based on their skin color. If a child likes another child, they become friends. It is simple and pure. Without a doubt the most effective way for someone to make friends with those in higher circles as a child is to go to sailing events. Sailing is normally a rich man’s game, even at the youth level. Not many parents are able to afford a boat for their child to race in. A new Opti, an eight foot long boat, is $3000. The goal in phase three is to use the marina facility for storage of small scale race boats, so that those without the opportunity to do so can sail, and even rent out these boats for events so that they can go to these races and meet the people they need to meet to succeed further on in life. On top of sailing, we will utilize our in-house workshop and in-house workforce to hold youth programs to teach children the skills they need to learn to be boat owners and maintainers themselves. The most expensive part of boat ownership is the maintenance of it. If you do not know how to take care of things yourself, the cost to you will skyrocket. The difference between changing the rigging on a thirty foot boat yourself, and hiring someone to do it is around $1,000 for self service and anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 to hire someone to do it. By teaching potential boat owners these skills at a low cost, we can make sailing something that people can do long term and sustain, rather than get overwhelmed by their first yard fee and give up. By the end of this project we have now linked minority groups back to our historic culture on the water, sailing. We will have taken the culture from being a rich man’s playground and leveled it for all. We will have built a small but growing society of successful sailors and a self sustaining way to create more. Together we can achieve this goal.
The end objective of this plan is a self sustaining business that is built up by the people to serve the community. It will be achieved in a three phase plan. The final phase being self sustainability by 2028. Phase one of this plan is to gather funds from grants and sponsors to compete in an event in 2023, the Global Solo Challenge. The Global Solo Challenge is a long and grueling race around the world utilizing the Southern Ocean. It will take approximately eight months in the vessel available to us to sail this 23,000nm race. This is no small feat in the sailing community. You are guaranteed to have many sets of eyes on you prior to, during and after the race. This is where we will be able to take advantage of the race to its fullest extent and capitalize on it. We will be gathering sponsorships to help fund the race, with the intention of forming a permanent partnership with as many companies as are willing after the race. These sponsorships and the exposure we will get during the race, by way of livestreaming location, sending race updates, weather updates and progress trackers will help us build a social media platform that will lead to more sponsorships. Currently, the Instagram accounted associated with the journey so far is amassing an average of 6-8% growth a month, and has one sponsorship already. This is not including three months of cruising content that is yet to be edited and uploaded to youtube and clipped to instagram as of the time of this writing. That will provide nearly three months of content, which will immediately end with the start of race preparation, which will take a year, all the while being uploaded to show progress. Then after that race preparation period we will have an eight month sailing period to grow, which will conclude with the skipper of the vessel returning with that eight months of footage to be edited and uploaded to Youtube. The estimated amount of media content this will provide is well over thirty two months of content. This means we will be consistently uploading new content for nearly three years. At this point the Youtube channel and Instagram account should have enough followers and subscribers that it can naturally grow just by posting new things. If however that is not the case it will not be a problem. As previously stated we have many sponsorship targets due to our connections in the sailing world and we can rely on those targets to fund our push into phase two of plan if necessary.
Phase two of the plan is a soft transition period from a pure racing and sailing team into the end goal of making sailing life more accessible to lower income citizens. This phase will incorporate a hybrid approach in which we step away from single hand racing in order to get people on race boats who would not have had these opportunities otherwise. Getting people with minimal sailing experience on the world stage competing in races around the world is a platform we can use to show other people with a similar background that anyone can do it. Our goal in this phase is to make a statement to the sailing world using their own platform. By competing in these races with minority crewmembers, and more importantly, being talked about, we can get the word out about our cause. Normally high end racing sailboats are unaffordably expensive. A new IMOCA 60 boat is over four million dollars to make. Every new race boat they make they have innovations to improve their speed. However, when they are done with the older models of these boats they sell them for a fraction of what they were worth. On the market as of the writing of this piece, there are IMOCA 60s for sale for less than $180,000. These boats do not get purchased by the high end race teams because everyone at the top wants to win. However, since our goal is to make a statement more than it is about winning, we stand to gain something from these less equipped, slower boats. The newer boats are faster, lighter, can foil, can point upwind better but at the end of the day they are held to the same one design standard. This means that even though we may not be as fast, to the general public, to the minority kids one day hoping to be something, they see African American sailors aboard the same type of boat as those at the top of the class. Now the other part of this plan involves paying for the maintenance and storage of the racing boat, a costly endeavor depending on where in the world you are. The plan for this is to buy a small marina. Marinas in the Chesapeake area vary in price but can be anywhere from $500,000 to $900,000 for a low end marina that can accommodate the size boat we are looking to purchase. This will greatly decrease the costs of maintaining such a boat, as we can do all of the maintenance for the vessel in-house. Another advantage to buying a marina is that we can truly embed ourselves in the community and hire local people to give them an opportunity to be a part of the program. In addition to servicing the race program, the marina will be fully functional and service transient and local boaters, which will help fund the race program. Once the race boat and marina are secured and functioning at full capacity we will have a four year campaign with the boat, competing in as many high profile races as possible, assuming the budget and the sponsors allow it. Races on the proposed itinerary include the Volvo Ocean Race, Sydney to Hobart, Fastnet Rock Race, and the 2028 Vendee Globe. At the end of this four year campaign the goal is to have sailed in every major race with the IMOCA class boats and make a name for ourselves, the crew can branch out in the sailing world, spreading our reach, and the boat can return home.
Phase three will begin once the boat returns home. Global sailing races require large sums of money. Phase one and two will be focused on gaining notoriety and funds for large scale events and large scale purchases. That is clearly not a long term sustainable platform, so the plan will shift as soon as phase three starts in order to make sure that the chance at a future in the sailing world for minority sailors remains available and does not burn out. Here we will also focus on the youth program. As stated in the introduction, making connections with affluent people is a staple to becoming economically successful yourself. There is no better time to connect yourself with future leaders than during childhood. Children have no preconceived notions about a person based on their skin color. If a child likes another child, they become friends. It is simple and pure. Without a doubt the most effective way for someone to make friends with those in higher circles as a child is to go to sailing events. Sailing is normally a rich man’s game, even at the youth level. Not many parents are able to afford a boat for their child to race in. A new Opti, an eight foot long boat, is $3000. The goal in phase three is to use the marina facility for storage of small scale race boats, so that those without the opportunity to do so can sail, and even rent out these boats for events so that they can go to these races and meet the people they need to meet to succeed further on in life. On top of sailing, we will utilize our in-house workshop and in-house workforce to hold youth programs to teach children the skills they need to learn to be boat owners and maintainers themselves. The most expensive part of boat ownership is the maintenance of it. If you do not know how to take care of things yourself, the cost to you will skyrocket. The difference between changing the rigging on a thirty foot boat yourself, and hiring someone to do it is around $1,000 for self service and anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 to hire someone to do it. By teaching potential boat owners these skills at a low cost, we can make sailing something that people can do long term and sustain, rather than get overwhelmed by their first yard fee and give up. By the end of this project we have now linked minority groups back to our historic culture on the water, sailing. We will have taken the culture from being a rich man’s playground and leveled it for all. We will have built a small but growing society of successful sailors and a self sustaining way to create more. Together we can achieve this goal.