http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/touaregsailingdvd - http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/touaregsailingdvd

Done with Draper & Hiscocks coached by Mark Rushall.

I got one via the above web page.

I have watched about half of it - very good and well worth the price

Rick

PS Advertised in this months Y&Y

You must have ticked the wrong box - I have had none.

They're awesome those Touregs, go anywhere!

*puts anorak on*

Iain (nice spelling, good man) that looks like a photoshop job of a Cuthbertson converted Land Rover...is it, or has someone really done that to a Toe-Rag?

I woudn't be too vocal about your view on the car brochure - even though I don't think I'll buy one my wife does have a VW so I am interested to have a browse.

If the person behnid this campaign thinks that even when they do somthing for free for all sailors they just get sl*gged off on public forums I suspect they may end up looking for a sport that treats their contribution to the sport with a bit more respect ... they are only doing this to sell cars.

Rick

Take your point, Rick, but my conscience took a bit of a beating when I realised I'd been responsible for 0.35 kg of high quality paper junk just to get a free DVD which had plenty of plugs for the 'car' on it anyway.

Not as bad as my conscience would be if I actually owned or drove such a Chelsea Tractor. Did you read the CO2 emission figures?! But I guess that people who feel they're entitled to drive such a vehicle also feel it's their right to pollute just as much as they want, anyway.

You requested the info - I am sure you have been around long enough to know what was coming your way - if you didn't want to recieve any marketing literature you should not have requested stuff from VW.

Rick

I take issue with that - as a company car driver doing 30+k a year, selling to someone face to face is VERY different to doing it over the phone or teleconferencing. That will never change - nothing is more effective than sitting in front of a buyer.

The pollution contributed by driving a car is piffling compared with the amount of unburned hydrocarbons and CO2 dumped into the atmosphere every time an aeroplane takes off.

The attention focussed on Car drivers is a total waste of time. IF CO2 is to blame for global warming (and there is no conclusive evidence of this - remember that the planet has been cooling down and warming up for millennia) then the focus of our attentions need to be focussed on power generation; every item in your house produces CO2 indirectly. However people with big cars are easily victimised.

Incedentally, I think the Touareg is a tad excessive but whatever floats your boat - it's small and economical compared to the vast pickups on the road in the US.

I think 4x4's get a lot of bad press - many "executive saloons" are far worse ... and as said above none of this makes much impact compared with air travel and power generation.

I was also once told that all the 2 stroke outboards in the USA collectivly did more damage than all of the cars in the UK ??

Anyway - TURN THAT TV OFF STAND BY ...

Enough about car pollution!!!! I'm sure VW didn't supply a sailing DVD and sponsor the event for the sailing communty in order to disscuss pollution. What did people think of the sailing DVD?

TT you could employ better quality staff who could be trusted to manage their own workloads, ensuring that they met their deadlines/targets with a minimum of screwdirvering from above.  Of course you'd have to pay more to get the top people but they will earn more for the company as they are the better workers...simple really.

He says sitting smugly free from commercial pressures 

Well quite!  But clearly, having a sponsored event/DVD etc has increased our 'awareness' of the 'product', and distracted us into spending valuable time and energy discussing something totally unrelated to sailing.

Frankly I think that we are all far too tight. I like to think I'd rather pay my own hard earnt, taxed income for an unsponsored DVD than have to put up with all the mind poison.

Having said that, a friend brought his copy of the DVD round and I did enjoy watching it, and learnt from it. Clearly not as relevant as Higher&Faster but lots of excellent racing tips. 

Even the pay for DVD's are sponsored. All the Lasers in the latest H&F DVD carry logos on the sails etc etc ...

Advertising & sponsorship are all part of life now and I'd get used to it if I were you ... I think events that are sponsored are generally better due to improved investment. Many events just would not happen without sponsors.

Well run sponsorship campaigns enhance our sport - being exposed to some advertising is a small price to pay.

Rick

The company buys the boat, put the company name down the side of it, and it is now classed as advertising, or something along those lines. The company then has to pay for new rags to keep the advertising "fresh".

My accountant says no

or much like the above use it for "entertaining" clients, the only problem there is that there might be issues offsetting it against corporation tax, as i don't think entertaining is allowable any more.

Hmm, i'm not sure if boat use is on the P11D, i'll have a think about it.

I have had this out with him and he says it's fine as long as I can demonstrate that it's a business only activity and I don't derive any pleasure from it - duality of purpose I think he called it.

The bottom line is that you can give it a go if you want but it may attract the interest of the revenue so is it really worth it?

The last thing any small business owners needs is a visit from the Spanish Inquestision (sp?) ...

I guess the best solution is for two SME owners to enter into a mutually benifical sponsorship deal that allows them to sponsor each other ... I think that would be more likley to get past the revenue - but I am not interested in doing so before anyone asks ....

Rick

Always best to play with a straight bat ...

If your company buy the boat then surely you would get capital allowance on the asset  which is 25% straight line. (No difference between company car and company boat) Depending on what you company tax bracket is you could save more corporation tax than the benefit you would gain for using it for personal use. Further more, if you paid your company the "market rate" ie the monetry value of the benefit in kind then you have compensated and therefore there benefit in kind would fall away. Now let me see, MPS costing £7K @ 25% is £1,750 reduction a year in the taxable profit, and I recon the market rate for you to compensate you company could say 5p an outing (remeber this is very subjective so you can use any figure!) sailing twice a week 108 outings. Therefore for a cost to you of £5.40 (5p X 108) a year you get a reduction of £1,750 in your taxable profit. 

It might be even better to have a company boat pool (same as company car pool)if the tax position is better - you just have to make sure the boat is available to all employees to use.

Good thing is all the runing costs of the boat should be allowable for tax purposes. Better paying for club membership, insurance, sails etc out of pretax profits than from your pocket where you have already paid income tax.

Only thing is when you sell you will most likely make a chargeable gain, but this would be not a lot compared to what you have saved considering the time value for money.

Also you could actually pay yourself to go sailing with the company boat. Since then you are sailing it in company time, which helps in proving it's not for personal use, to promote your company.

If you are VAT registered you could even claim the VAT back. But don't really know too much about that. Just a thought. But be careful of the VAT man - they have stronger powers any force known to man!

Anybody considering any of the above should consult their own financial advisor. This is NOT financial advice but an airing of views! I can not be held liable for any actions regarding the above,(Thought I'd better put that in!)

Sounds like it..

Just off to set up my new company "Pay Scooby to sail"

But you can prove it does (for tax purposes). The reason for adverting to to get your product over to you target market. Now the reason for sponsering is a cheap way of getting press coverage. Now sailing is enojoyed my many, many professionals from all types of industry -  there's your market. It is mass marketing to a broad diverse base and within it is your target market (bit like advertising on TV). Just think of all the people that would want your product that sail as a past time, and you're adverting you boat on the winning of the Nats via a photo in Y&Y. If you don't get you photo in the press then put it down to the high risk advertising campaign and nothing is lost, just put in a bigger budget next year to do better!

But - if he's cat sailing it would be far easier to argue the point about personal enjoyment ...

I am not sure I can believe disc point as a car is necessary for business but a boat ... lets see his (or her) credentails ...

Please don't put that slurr against my good name! lol. I prefer to say I work in venture capital and leave it at that. It just makes my life sound more interesting since most people then don't have clue.

Ok you may not actually work as an accountant but do you hold any ACA quals?!?

My missus tries the same trick!

Wasn't it HSBC that had a fleet of yatchs, one of which got stuck on a sand bank and appeared in the paper "the worlds local sand bank!"? They most certainly would have had they capital allowance worth from that fleet. 

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Ok you may not actually work as an accountant but do you hold any ACA quals?!?

My missus tries the same trick!

[/QUOTE]

I do have membership of a couple of chartered associtations in the finance industry namely ACA and ACMA as well as other lesser unchartered associations. But I do work in industry and commerce, hence I said I work for a venture capital company, not for a practice as they are boring as hell.

Originally posted by Philsy Oh, and just to put me in the petrolheads' good books, I've just returned from a high-speed blast round northern France in a 911. For business, of course...

That should put you in environmental friends good books as well, because a 911 is light and aerodynamic, whereas in the case of certain less-light and less-aerodynamic vehicles...

Going back a few posts, Philsy, fair enough, no offence taken mate

Going back to the ToeRag DVD, it's very good and well worth sending off for.  I have not yet watched the obvious car related towing/launching bits, but the sailing side of things is very technical, albeit aimed mainly at sportsboat sailors.

However it does make me laugh how many time they manage to squeeze in "Mark Rushall, RYA GBR Coach of the Year" and the dramatic turn to face camera from Draper and Hiscocks at the beginning is hide-behind-a-cushion cringeworthy.

Petrol (and diesel) head on, I have to say that the ToeRag is a damned fine looking vehicle, much better than that hideous Cayenne.  Porsche tried to make it look like their signature car, the 911, and it looks sh!t, fortunatly VW resisted all temptation to make it look like a beetle.

And that V10 300bhp diesel is one hell of a piece of engineering!