sponsorship

To be honest Sailor Girl, I doubt if you'll have a huge amount of luck getting sponcorship - The byte doesnt exactle have a huge following in the UK, its not an RYA class like the topper or laser, so I doubt if you'd get funding off them. Unless you live on the south coast in Portsmouth/Southampton etc, or in a place that has a couple of major sailing clubs, I found even local papers dont care that much - sailing isnt somehting that the 'general public' can relate to.

Local companies - possible, but remember if you're going to Garda no1 will know who the company is, so you need to offer local coverage.

Best advice - you're still at school so play off that - parents associations (write to them directly). You're still a junior so ask your sailing club - some clubs have small funds for juniors hidden somewhere that you might get a hundred quid or so from.

To make things cheaper - camp, and try and find a travelling buddy or 2 - if you can borrow a laser double stacker for a few weeks it can be adapted to take bytes, stick one on top of the car, basically the more people travel together the cheaper it gets.

I wouldn't even bother trying marine companies like Gill, HenriLloyd, Purple etc - they get sooooooooo many requests for money each year that they can, and will, just pick the sailors that get the most coverage and the best results.

If you;re going abroad make sure you have as many spares as pos, a decent toolkit with spare cleats etc and go over everything on your boat, trailer and car  before you leave - ropes, fittings, mast, trailer wheels...having sailed bytes for a while I know thay when you push them they can have a tendency to break. Differnet countries have different rules of what you need to carry in the car - spare lights, 1st aid kit...make sure you have all this to avoid trouble.

If you can, speak to someone at your club who has travelled for a while, assuming this is your 1st international, they will have a lot of advice for you.

Don't forget the AA membership.  When my trusty Hiace started leaking vital fluids all over the M25 with the Finn in tow I certainly got my monies worth.  It took two trucks to get me home.  One for the boat and one for the van. You should have seen the guys face when I told him to be careful of the mast.  He asked if they were expensive.  About 1800 quid!  He never went more than 40mph.

The REAL ultimate cheapskate's towcar: our 21 year old Mercedes 280TE estate took us and a double-stack FD trailer to Lake Como and back last summer with all our sailing gear plus kit for a week's holiday afterwards. The car had 250,000 miles on the clock when we set out, cost £250 and didn't miss a beat. Silly speeds on the Autobahns, over the Alps without noticing the gradients and extreme comfort. Was never a Merc fan until that car came along, won't have anything else now - apart from the silly V8-engined American motorhome I've just bought!!

For the ULTIMATE tow car with plenty off room for a bed in the back.....  See below.  However if you can afford one of these, I don't think you are the kind of person struggling for $$$$$

 

Edited by Tornado_ALIVE

wish i had a car, have to try and find space on doubble stackers to go anywhere at the moment, doen't make for a good series result