Sailing Stories
The Architect
Since learning to sail with Outrun as a guest on a boat, we now have our own corporate sailing days (an annual fixture), fuelled by my passion and our guests' obvious enjoyment, many of whom have little or no experience.
A sailing event ticks all the right boxes - it's one-to-one, a great leveller in a great setting, demands team work with our clients with just the occasional hint of competitiveness!
The skippers are hands-on when required, giving everyone a turn at the helm with sufficient training so everyone feels part of the action. Sailing is full of incidents and the après-sail is almost as good as being on the water - it makes a memorable impression on our clients, not least as it is corporate hospitality without the usual brash razzmatazz!
A number of guests (myself included) have gone on to learn more about sailing and racing.
Highly recommended!
Dominic Boyes
(Aedas Architects Ltd)
The College
Over an intense 9 days, we ran team building activities for 150 students. Each day saw us meet a different group who spent the morning on 3 of our boats learning the ropes together, followed by an afternoon of incredibly competitive racing (with lunch on the boat, plus an obligatory swim for the keen ones!)
We were able to organise activities for a further two days in the lakes, allowing us to easily accommodate the whole group. So when they weren't getting sprayed on the lake in our boats, they were being soaked in a canoe, or splattered with mud on a guided mountain bike over the hills. Which was all part of the plan - to give a fun, exciting range of activities that helped them learn essential skills about leadership, negotiation and team work.
In the process, they learned an awful lot about themselves too, together with some quickly mastered sailing skills (some even caught the sailing bug!)
Bob Wheatley
The Skipper
The Graduates
We came to the lakes with three recently recruited graduates with the aim of getting to know them better - to discover how we could best develop their individual skills.
So they were a little surprised when on the first morning, Outrun collected us from the hotel jetty to take us all sailing for a couple of hours.
We spent the rest of the day indoors with flipcharts and laptops. But it has to be said - the 2 hours spent on the boat gave us a unique opportunity to see things about each other that we'd never have discovered otherwise.
Everyone was so much more candid, far too busy enjoying the experience to realise this was also the day's first team building exercise! (we even asked for Bob's observations on our graduates too, which proved very useful)
Incorporating Outrun Sailing into the day's events was a great idea that worked well for us.
David Stevens
The Brilliant Laundry Group
The Bradford & Bingley
We came to the lakes to sail with Outrun on Windermere arriving in the evening darkness. Our first view of the lake the following morning from the bedroom window was an overwhelming delight.
Staying in a hotel on the lakeshore was a real bonus for everyone, especially when the Outrun skippers collected us from the hotel jetty in the morning.
By the end of the day, we felt like seasoned sailors with our very own private jetty! Not having to 'commute' to and from the boat made the logistics so much easier for everyone.
Spending time with each other over dinner in the evening, relaxing in the hotel lounge (with tales of our sailing escapades abounding) only served to reinforce everything we'd learned together that day.
The worst bit was leaving - the boats, our trusty skippers, the hotel, the view, the whole experience.
Very worthwhile!
Ricky Mahindra
Bradford & Bingley