Organizations combine resources under new agreement to play on respective strengths, increase overall visibility of sailing industry

MIDDLETOWN, July 31, 2008 - - Sail America and The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) today announced the restructuring of their affiliation agreement. The newly-restructured partnership, which has the unanimous support of both organizations’ Board of Directors, capitalizes on each organization’s strengths and concentrates Sail America’s resources to aggressively market sailing to the general public and create a stronger sailing presence at boat shows.

Under the new affiliation, Sail America will continue to function as a separate legal entity and will maintain its own dedicated staff, board of directors, and committees. Sail America will be responsible for endorsing and promoting sail-focused boat shows, developing outreach programs to promote the sailing lifestyle, running seminar programs at all Strictly Sail shows and SailFests, providing content and support for Discover Boating, and helping to develop funding models to increase sailing’s contribution to the industry’s Grow Boating Initiative.

Sail America will continue to own Strictly Sail Pacific but all boat show operations will be managed by NMMA’s highly-qualified sail-focused boat show team, reducing overhead for Sail America and allowing NMMA to do one of the things it does best: Organize and operate boat shows. NMMA will be responsible for managing and producing Strictly Sail Chicago, Strictly Sail Miami, Strictly Sail Pacific, and SailFest events at the Virginia In-Water Boat Show, the Liberty Boat Show, and the Baltimore Boat Show, all of which will be endorsed and promoted by Sail America.

“This new arrangement allows Sail America to provide a dedicated focus on the needs of the sailing industry, while at the same time expanding our reach and capabilities,” says Bill Goggins, president of Sail America and commercial director of Harken Inc. “Our new partnership plays to the strengths of both organizations, and Sail America’s relationship with NMMA will be stronger and more productive than ever. We’re incredibly happy with this new opportunity!”

Under the new agreement, NMMA will pay Sail America a share of sailing-related revenue from NMMA-owned boat shows and will provide Sail America with access to its staff and resources in the areas of membership support, marketing communications and government relations.

“From NMMA’s perspective, this is a win-win situation,” explains NMMA president Thom Dammrich. “The new partnership better utilizes existing resources and expertise of both NMMA and Sail America and will serve to increase visibility of sailing. Working in concert with Sail America and its team of resources and experts, we can merge the strengths of both organizations to improve the overall financial health and well-being of the industry as a whole.”

For more information about the new Sail America/NMMA affiliation, contact Sail America executive director Jonathan Banks at (401) 841-0900; jbanks@sailamerica.com; or NMMA vice president of Marketing & Communications Carl Blackwell at (312) 946-6277; cblackwell@nmma.org.

About NMMA: National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) is the leading association representing the recreational boating industry. NMMA member companies produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, accessories and gear used by boaters in the United States. The association is dedicated to industry growth through programs in public policy, market research and data, product quality assurance and marketing communications. For more information, visit NMMA.org.

About Sail America: Sail America is the trade association for the U.S. sailing industry and plays a vital role for all companies that provide sailing-related products and services. Sail America’s mission is to promote the health and growth of sailing by providing it members with targeted sales opportunities, industry and market information, ongoing business education, and cost-saving business programs. For more information, visit SailAmerica.com.