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The Pizza-La Sailing Team works upwind during the semifinals of the Swedish Match Tour’s ACI HTmobile Cup in Split, Croatia. (Bob Grieser/Outside Images)
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Note: This two-page article is a longer version of the profile of the Pizza-La Sailing Team found in Issue 9 of the Tour Newsletter.
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By Sean McNeill
Yaji-san stood on the breakwater at Langenargen Harbor in Southern Germany, looking westward. Lake Constance was still, but Yasuhiro Yaji stared out toward Switzerland, studying the clouds.
“It’s going to come soon,” he said.
Ten minutes earlier, the crewmember and leader of the Pizza-La Sailing Team had stepped off the Bavaria 35 Match on which he crewed. The race committee at Match Race Germany had signaled a postponement due to lack of morning wind and sent the sailors back to the harbor. But that didn’t delay Yaji’s job.
“Look at the clouds up high, they’re moving. We’ll have breeze soon,” said the 38-year-old from Tokyo. Within 90 minutes, the crews were back on the water sailing in a fresh westerly breeze.
For any good crew, non-stop work is the key to success, and has been the staple of the Pizza-La Sailing Team, which clinched the Swedish Match Tour championship a month before its conclusion.
The team consisting of primary crewmembers Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yaji and skipper Peter Gilmour has been nearly unbeatable, counting all top-three finishes in their scoreline before the Tour concluding Swedish Match Cup was sailed.
“They never lose focus,” said Carsten Kemmling, an editor at German Yacht magazine who crewed for Pizza-La at Match Race Germany. “They keep talking, talking and talking. They’re so professional you don’t notice when they win races.”
They’ve won plenty of races though. Not content with just clinching the 2003-’04 Tour championship after the sixth event, when two events remained, they’re also rewriting the record book for the 5-year-old Tour.
They’ve won three regattas, tying a Tour record for most wins in a season, and stand to finish the season with three 1sts, two 2nds and one 3rd. No one has ever counted all top-three finishes in their final scoreline.
 PST has scored 130 points through seven events, the highest total to win the Tour (they could add to it in Sweden). After winning the Tour event in Germany (left), their third Tour win, they had totaled 142 points, the highest aggregate at any point during a Tour season in its five years of existence. (A team’s six best finishes are counted in its final score, giving PST two drops.)
They’ve won more than $90,000 in event prize money. They’ve won a Mercedes Benz SLK 200 roadster, vauled at Euro 40,000 (approximately $48,000). They’ll win the $60,000 bonus from Swedish Match for winning the Tour. A top-four finish in Sweden could push their winnings to more than $225,000.
“It’s not about the money,” said Mottl, 36, of Sydney, Australia. “It’s about the competition, about proving we’re the best on the circuit and gaining the respect of the yachting fraternity to try and get other jobs.”
A Beautiful Sponsorship
Yaji-san is the glue that holds the team together. When he’s not on the water, he’s the personal assistant to Hidenori Asano, the 50-year-old president of the Four Seeds Company in Japan.
 Four Seeds is a conglomerate, owning a number of specialty restaurants catering to tastes from sushi to hamburgers, from French cuisine to Italian pasta. Pizza-La, a gourmet pizza chain, is the No. 1 pizza franchise in Japan with 600 outlets. Yaji (right) began working for Asano-san after the ’95 America’s Cup. He always had the dream of having Pizza-La sponsor a match-racing team, and approached Asano-san with the proposal prior to the ’96 Nippon Cup.
“I promised him we would win the Nippon Cup,” Yaji said. They did, and a beautiful sponsorship was born. “He’s very friendly as a company president. He provides good support.”
Prior to this year Asano-san agreed to increase Pizza-La’s sponsorship of the team to $1 million, but it came with another promise. “I had to promise him we would win the Tour,” said Yaji-san. Promise fulfilled.
As a return on investment, Asano-san gets to keep the trophies and plaques that the team collects from events around the world.
“This is the biggest achievement for Four Seeds,” said Yaji. “Mr. Asano likes to sponsor water sports because they’re popular in Japan. He feels he is giving back to the people who help support Pizza-La.”
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Newsletter - September 2008
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