Toy Boats Connect Public to Ocean Race

Remote control boats to engage people with sailing, now here is a fun idea! It's not a new idea, but one that seems to be taking greater shape here in Europe. I've been hanging out with Hans Genthe of StockMaritime.Com, an advertising, stock photos and dealer of the coolest remote control sailboats out of Hamburg, Germany.

Hanse helped me better understand how his company uses these boats to build stronger costumer relations between sailing sponsors and the public. The Volvo played with this last year and was a huge hit with the crowds. Then they had AC replicas and this year they have both AC and V70s! It's a handful of a fleet which requires it's own shore crew to manage.

Each team/sponsor has both and there will be regattas scheduled. Currently Hans is training two VOR staff to maintain the fleet which has proven to be a challenge. He was suppose to head home the other day!

Today he took me sailing! Ok, never actually left the dock but we took Ericsson 3 out and amazed how easy and fun it was to get the hang of it. Which leads back Hans' belief that people of all ages, in a short period of time, say at a boat show, week long venue like Key West Race Week could play with boats, learn a little bit about sailing and never get sea sick or wet!

For the Sponsors, who can not take everyone out for a ride on the real deal can now interact with the public using fully decorated boats. This is the moral of the story and how Hans and his colleagues at StockMaritime have build a successful business in advertising and marketing with toy boats in Europe!