NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SYRF

Congratulations to Bjorn Johnson appointed the executive director of the Sailing Yacht Research Foundation

SYRF APPOINTS NEW OFFICERS

Scott Weisman joins Board of Directors as new Treasurer, Bjorn Johnson becomes Executive Director

Effective June 1st, the Sailing Yacht Research Foundation (SYRF) will have a new Treasurer and a new Executive Director position filled to help guide the organization forward in its mission to support the science of sailing.

Scott Weisman from White Plains, NY will join the Board of Directors of SYRF as its new Treasurer, filling the position vacated by Peter Reichelsdorfer who retired from SYRF last month. Weisman is a Co-Chairman of Etico Capital LP and Senior Managing Director of Olympus Securities, LLC, and has decades of inshore and offshore racing experience in the Northeast US, having had a succession of designs named Pterodactyl campaigned successfully throughout the region, and most recently also raced the Tripp 41 High Noon. Scott is no relation to San Diego-based fellow SYRF Board member Gary Weisman.

“I joined SYRF because I believe in its mission to support handicap racing with science,” says Weisman. “Science and technology are the anchors to any good handicap system, and I believe that if we have the best technology then we can have the best racing.

“HPR is an example: it is SYRF that has supported the advent of this new system to encourage the design of high-performance offshore yachts that are pushing technology forward, and this concept is getting traction all over the world. I look forward to helping shape this and other dimensions of the SYRF mission for the future.”

SYRF has also created a new Executive Director position to help manage its operations and fundraising efforts of the foundation, which has 501(c)3 status to accept tax-deductible donations. Bjorn Johnson from Newport, RI will fill this position, and brings with him a wealth of both sailing and organizational experience in offshore sailing. With a professional background in real estate project management, Johnson has applied these skills as the leader of several one design class fleets over the past decade, but most notably was also Chairman of the 2010 Newport-Bermuda Race, one of the world’s premier ocean races.

“I see that there is fertile ground available to grow offshore sailing,” says Johnson, “and SYRF can play a very important role in this growth. Besides promoting research and development, I see other key elements being education and transparency in the use of the research that comes from SYRF-funded projects. Owners, sailors, race organizers and managers, and even the media need to know more about how science can be applied to create better sailing for everyone.

“I look forward to finding donors who share this vision, but also working with rating systems and classes to apply these principles.”

Johnson has also accepted the Executive Director position for the Offshore Racing Association (ORA), the owner of the HPR and ORR rating rule systems.

“We are really pleased to have Bjorn and Scott on board,” says SYRF co-Chairman Steve Benjamin. “They both share the Board’s vision and goals for the future, and with their successful backgrounds and experience bring great skills and insight to having us accomplish our mission.”

For more information on SYRF, and information on how to make a tax-deductible donation, visit the website at www.sailyachtresearch.org. For a T2P-produced video explaining the SYRF mission, visit http://youtu.be/jgsdhgvd8A8.

About SYRF: The Sailing Yacht Research Foundation (SYRF) provides the sport of yacht racing with the technology, tools, research, and expertise necessary to broaden and deepen the understanding of yacht dynamics, to improve the fairness of yacht racing handicapping and rating rules, and encourage the universal adoption and implementation of those rules. A 501(c)3 foundation, SYRF was incorporated in 2006 by a group of sailors and scientists who, through research into the performance of competitive sailing yachts, made it their goal to develop the tools that aid in promulgating better handicap racing in all categories.

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ws lirakis

a sailor who carries a camera

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