Assembled for safety briefing
Sailtas is often chosen by businesses to provide a day out for corporate guests and their families or for team building within the organisation. In establishing any business partnership it is important to know and trust the people you are to be working with. Often you only get to fully appreciate a persons skills and qualities when you see them interacting with their families and friends. Sharing different experiences and challenges also offers insights into how they might respond in various contexts. It isn’t surprising that Sailtas frequently takes groups of up to twelve people associated with a business partnership for an all-day sail. A typical example of one of these cruises is detailed as follows:
Sailtas received a booking requesting premium seafood for a group of twelve Chinese business partners and their families. While our standard seafood chowder, cheese and fruit platters are quality Tasmanian produce, the group also requested fresh crayfish, abalone, oysters and prawns which could be barbecued on board or served ‘au naturale’. Four children were included in the group, three requiring Sailtas to supply the appropriate sized child’s life jacket. Most of the group had never sailed before.
We provided a dockside safety briefing followed by a tour through the boat where we pointed out the features and facilities, demonstrated the use of equipment and how best to manoeuvre through the boat. We cast off and headed up the Channel towards the Salmon Farms off Shepherds Hill to give our guests a glimpse of the seals that usually linger close to the fish pens. While our guests were not in the business of salmon farming, the exercise prompted a discussion about the business success salmon farming has experienced. The enthusiasm of the children looking for seals added to the general feeling of optimism on board.
Feeling comfortable with the gentle motion of sailing, a few people felt confident enough to take a turn at helming the boat. A young woman, attentive to the subtle changes in wind and the angle of telltales on the sail proved most adept at keeping the yacht on course. Buoyed by her success she shed her quiet, demure demeanour and shared stories about her experiences in China and her student life in Canada. The conversation that followed, flowed through the cockpit revealing how worldly this group was, as most had studied and worked abroad.
At midday we headed into Nebraska Beach to give everyone the opportunity to have a wander ashore, particularly as the children wanted to run and play on the beach. We lowered the dingy, while our guests donned life jackets, rolled up the legs of their trousers for a beach landing and selected a beach balls, cricket set and a frisbee to play onshore. It took four trips in the dingy to ferry the entire group ashore and back to the boat, so we were delighted that one of our guests wanted to stay onboard and help us prepare and barbecue the crayfish and abalone while the others played.
With everyone back on board, lunch was served along with premium Tasmanian wines and craft beer. While the freshly barbecued seafood was superb, the real winners were the bowls of seafood chowder which warmed the hands and stomach. After lunch the fishing rods were brought out and lines were cast into the bay without a bite being felt. We hoisted sail as the wind had picked up several knots, perfect conditions for an exhilarating sail. Our group preferred to find another sandy bay were they hoped to find a flathead lair, content to fish idily on the foredeck with a drink and the sun reflecting off the water.
