NASHUA, N.H., March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Marine, the leading
supplier to the worldwide recreational marine electronics market, and its
newly unveiled http://www.boaters.com web site today announced their sponsorship of
the two time Americas Cup Winner Courageous for the Americas Cup Jubilee
Challenge.
The Jubilee Challenge will celebrate the world's longest running sporting
event, the Americas Cup, in Cowes, Isle of Wight in 2001. The series will
continue throughout Europe for the entire summer racing season. The Raytheon
Marine/boaters.com sponsorship package will include a combination of financial
contributions and equipment, including Raytheon Marine's state-of-the-art
electronics and navigational gear placed on board Courageous and her chase
boats.
The current Courageous challenge is led under the command of Captain
Niccolo Porzio, an experienced international racer who had his introduction to
offshore racing during the 1979 Fastnet race. With Courageous, Porzio has
successfully blended an intense professional racing schedule with an unusual
volunteer program designed to introduce world class racing to sailors of all
ages. Captain Porzio has also created elements of the program that take very
young sailors aboard for a rare opportunity to experience the thrill of being
on a world-class racing yacht.
"Boaters.com and Raytheon Marine are proud to be sponsoring a winning
yacht with such a progressive model for combining successful racing and the
opportunity to educate and benefit the youth of today," said Jeffrey Fellows,
vice president of sales and marketing for Raytheon Marine.
"The program we have designed with the Museum of Yachting is one of the
most rewarding I could ever hope for," Porzio said. "We have the excitement
and intensity of racing Courageous, and can really provide some of our kids
with memories to last a lifetime. The Raytheon Marine/boaters.com sponsorship
will go a long way in ensuring the success of our program."
Courageous, a modern 12-metre class racing yacht, gained fame by winning
the Americas Cup in 1974 under the command of sailing legend Ted Hood, and
again in 1977 under the command of media mogul Ted Turner. Courageous is
currently owned by the Museum of Yachting in Newport, R.I., and competes in a
wide range of regattas. She is being refit for a very competitive season in
2000 and for the Americas Cup Jubilee race series in Cowes, United Kingdom in
2001.
The new boaters.com site, a blend of magazine-style pleasure boating
content and marine product buying information, features a merchant mall with
direct access to the nation's leading marine industry retailers as well as
real-time customer service and community builders such as instant chats with
experts on a broad range of recreational boating topics.
"Our clear objective for boaters.com is to be the destination site for
everything marine and marine related, and this sponsorship is a great
opportunity to reach out in this space in a very meaningful way," said Eric
Singleton, director of global e-business and strategy for Raytheon Company.
Raytheon Marine (http://www.raymarine.com), a unit of Raytheon Company, is
dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of the highest quality marine
electronic products and services to the worldwide recreational boating,
commercial fishing, merchant shipping and government markets. Headquartered in
Nashua, N.H., Raytheon Marine employs more than 1,500 people worldwide and has
key offices in Portsmouth, United Kingdom; Kiel, Germany; Malaga, Spain;
Sudbury, Mass.; and Plano, Texas.
Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader
that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense
electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission
aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and serves
customers in more than 80 countries.
SOURCE Raytheon Company
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