Executive Summary

Pensacola Bay is one of the premier sailing venues in the United States due to the confluence of fair climate, low chop, steady wind, and abundant sunshine.  Despite these attributes, Pensacola has not been appreciated for sailing activity in the manner seen with Annapolis, Newport, San Diego and San Francisco.

The selection of Pensacola Bay as the winter training venue for the American Magic sailing syndicate has catapulted Pensacola into the international sailing lexicon.  This endorsement of Pensacola sailing attributes by the U.S. team challenging to reclaim the America’s Cup is a powerful validation of the Pensacola Bay sailing attributes.

The economic opportunity represented by the collision of this endorsement and the natural sailing attributes of Pensacola Bay is substantial. 

This opportunity crosses economic development and tourism domains and if converted into a community sailing initiative, will yield new jobs, new construction, and new tourists.  The economic benefit to the city and county will be appreciable.

Sail Pensacola was organized around the vision of converting this opportunity into a sustainable sub-economy that gains international recognition over the next 25 years.

In order to achieve the vision, Sail Pensacola will leverage:

1. Non-profit corporate structure,
2. Board leadership representing the history and vision of Pensacola,
3. Triumph Funding,
4. Linkages to existing entities focused on economic development, tourism, and community enhancement, and,
5. Sailing insight by its leadership.

Sail Pensacola will pursue near-term, mid-range, and long-term goals, immediately establishing itself as the authoritative information conduit for recreational sailing, professional sailing, economic development opportunities of sailing and media connections. By 2050, Sail Pensacola will have facilitated growth of sailing across recreational, tourism, and business domains, such that Pensacola will be recognized as the high-performance sailing hub of the U.S.  Accordingly, Pensacola will become the pre-eminent destination for sailing business, training of professional sailing teams, and recreational, racing, and cruising sailing.

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