Entry fees back: why we support water sports athletes directly

Every weekend thousands of water sports athletes travel to regattas, races and tournaments. They tow the boat, drive for hours, pay for fuel, berths and accommodation, and they pay their entry fees, usually out of their own pocket. They sail a yacht, race a motor boat or ride a jet ski, and most of them do it without any sponsor.

Sponsorship in water sports usually goes to associations, clubs and organisers. That matters, because many regattas and youth programmes would not exist without it. Little of it reaches the individual athlete who is not at the very top, though. That is where the NAMMERT Ranking comes in.

The idea is simple. Anyone who signs up, wears our logo where it can be seen and takes part in a publicly advertised water sports event gets their entry fee back: up to €100 per event and up to €400 over the season, from a pot of €10,000 for 2027. How much has been paid out is shown openly on our website at all times.

Every checked event earns points: 10 for taking part and, from the age of 18, 3 more for a social media post about it. There are no points for position, time or speed. We work in insurance on the water, and rewarding speed would encourage exactly the kind of claim nobody wants. We want to reward the people who turn up, event after event.

There are six sports: sailing, jet ski, jetboard and eFoil, motor boats and powerboats, angling and other water sports, each with separate tables for adults and juniors. At the end of the season the winner of every table becomes King of NAMMERT and receives the trophy and a sponsorship voucher worth €400. We set aside up to €5,000 on top of the pot for this.

Taking part has nothing to do with insurance. Nobody needs a policy with us, nothing is set off against what anyone pays for liability or hull cover, and a submission is never used when the insurer looks at a claim. Intermediaries may not grant their customers special benefits, so the ranking is deliberately kept apart from any insurance contract.

To keep things clean, every athlete signs a sponsorship agreement before the first refund, digitally if they wish. From 18, a post clearly labelled as advertising is part of every event. Children and young people can join from the age of 7 with their parents' consent; for them a post is optional and earns no points. The season starts on 1 April 2027, and sign-up is open now.