The International MUSTO Skiff Class Association has today launched a new website to mark the 20th anniversary of the class. At the start of the year the class association embarked on a complete redesign of the existing MUSTO Skiff website as part of plans to celebrate their 20th milestone in 2020. Whilst the pandemic soon put the planned anniversary activities on hold, the website project was given the go ahead with support of the class members.
The original class website was established over 18 years ago by MUSTO Skiff sailor and marketer, Rick Perkins. Ahead of its time when it was first created, the official website soon became an invaluable resource for sailors in the class. Over the years, it grew to include a wealth of information spread over hundreds of pages with content relating to class activities, events, and training, as well as tips and guides on rigging and tuning.
Recognising the shift in how people consume websites today, a decision was made to build the new website on a modern platform with more visual content and interactive features. The new design is also fully optimised for mobiles and tablet devices, making it more accessible and easy to use when in and around sailing clubs.
A more extensive image gallery section has been created with photos and video content from major events over the years. In addition, the new website now includes a ‘community hub video gallery’ page to showcase some of the best and most popular sailing videos from MUSTO Skiff sailors all over the world.
As part of a website project development team, MUSTO Skiff’s marketing and communications manager, Natalie Hilton, delivered the project with the input of the international committee and class boat builder, Ovington Boats Ltd. Commenting on the scale of the project and some of the key objectives of the redesign, Natalie said:
“The International Class Committee is really excited to finally launch this new website ahead of the 2021 season. This was a huge project for the class to take on as web design has moved on significantly since the original website was launched in 2002. The original site also included over 1,600 pages of content and images recording the activities of the class over the last 18 seasons. We wanted to retain as much of the great content as possible and celebrate the history of the class, but we also had the objective of creating a positive user experience with the new design. It needed to look good, but above all, it needed to be useful and easy to navigate.”
The new home page has been designed to provide everything that the current class members need on a single page, including direct links to news updates, social media, event reports and the latest event schedules.
Attracting new sailors to the class was also a key objective of this project. Dedicated sections on the class and the boat have been created with the aim of helping new and prospective members to explore the class and better understand the boat design and sailing experience. Those keen to see the high performance skiff in action can also view an embedded video of the MUSTO Skiffs racing competitively on Australia’s aqua blue waters directly from the home page.
International Class Chairman, Andy Tarboton, added:
“Over the last few months, we’ve worked hard to strike the balance between information that the class will want to access going forward and the key information that the everyday sailor will need from the website. We also set ourselves the brief of creating a fresh and dynamic design that could really showcase the amazing sailing experience of the boat in all parts of the world and attract new sailors to the class. It was definitely an ambitious project, but we are really pleased that the class members supported the redesign. We now have a great platform to showcase the class from 2021 onwards.”
