Corporate Event Management     -    Tides location only

                                         You should be Sailing !  

Organizing sailing activities for corporate groups is one of our strong points. We know how to make sailing work for you, whether you want to just have some interdepartmental fun, or do some team building, or try some really competitive racing or just have a relaxing afternoon with some colleagues because you never get 10 minutes together without a phone interruption.
And it is important that you know that none of your group needs to have any prior experience whatsoever. We provide the boats and we provide good sailors as skippers who can very smoothly introduce their new crew (you) to the basic sailing tasks, enough to enjoy an afternoon of sailing or racing and to be fully involved, working as a team and having plenty of hands on activity.

We have a range of boats which are of different size and performance level , so we can tailor a sailing afternoon for you to suit your exact requirements and for very reasonable prices. 

Companies who have used us over the past 5 years, for match racing or corporate sailing events include:

Capital One, World Bank, Phillip Morris, Southern Health, Maguire Woods, MPI, Haworth, TLC, GE Capital, Vollmer Group, DuPont Chemical, Capital One Financial, Post Newsweek, Discovery Group, Global One, Laureate Realty, ILC, Merck & Co., Destination Paradise, Air Malta, Merit Malta, RLR., Price Waterhouse. Tucker Alan, Omniplex,, Optical Society,  Digitech, Scott & Stringfellow and State Farm Insurance.

We split larger groups into different teams, not all of whom race at the same time, thus easily accommodating groups as large as 50 using the fleet in one afternoon.

Three options available are as follows:-

1.  Team building through Sailboat racing. 

Sailing, and in particular racing, is a natural team building experience. Use racing to build up your team’s confidence and help them to work together.  No previous sailing experience is necessary - Premier Sailing will organize everything for you and put an experienced instructor on each boat.  Each boat (J24 or Cal 30) can accommodate four of your team plus skipper.

How it works....  This activity starts when you step on board your boat and meet your instructor/facilitator.  The instructor will introduce you to the boat and to the basic skills you will need in order to sail the boat as a team - this includes where each of you is placed on the boat, what your individual job will be, how the race will work.  One person will steer, one will work the main sail, and two will work the jib (front sail)  - our instructor will guide everyone through their jobs and keep you going in the right direction and take over any job if necessary.  Remember - no previous sailing experience is necessary.   We keep this simple enough for everyone to feel confident and included and from experience we know that you will start asking more penetrative questions as the day goes on and you get drawn into the competitive nature of the racing tactics.  We normally run at least three or four races which gives everyone lots of new starts and a chance to regroup.  Some teams like to rotate jobs after each race , others get into a successful groove and want to change nothing!  All of this racing takes place in Carter Creek right in front of The Tides.

Price. $90 per person plus $100 event organization fee.

2.   Talk Sailing! -  A communication building program   through sailing.  A special program developed to help your team build their communication   skills.  This is all about talking to each other and successfully communicating for optimum team results.  Premier will put your teams aboard boats with experienced facilitators.  This program includes an initial one hour session on shore and a thorough debriefing exercise after sailing so groups need to allow a  good three and a half or four hours for this program.

How it works...  Before you arrive we ask you for some information about your group - your jobs, your positions within the company, what you are specifically trying to achieve for your group.  We will ask you to split your groups into teams of four - you will know which people you want to put together and which people you will want to separate.  When you arrive our chief facilitator will explain to you all how Talk Sailing works.   Each team of four will then be separated and each team member will be given a different sailing task to learn.  He or she will learn this in isolation from the rest of the team (normally by reading an information sheet).  After 20 minutes the information sheets will be gathered up and each team will gather on their boat and meet their facilitator.   Now your team has to talk to each other and communicate the pieces of information that they have learned - all four information packs added together is the information you need to be able to sail your boat around the course.  Your facilitator will not tell you what to do - he will encourage you to communicate with each other.  You are allowed to spend some “capital” and ask him/her questions. In fact you will be asked to set a budget and decide in advance how much capital (i.e. how many questions) you think you will need to spend...  The chief facilitator will move from boat to boat throughout the sailing period to compare how each team is doing (you will still have your own facilitator on each boat).

Price. $195 per person plus $100 event organization fee.

The sailing part of this event takes about two hours.  When this is over you come ashore the whole group will have a very thorough debriefing session led by the chief facilitator and it is during this session that all the lessons and revelations of the day will unfold and you will have a real insight into your team and how it communicates - the strengths and weaknesses of your communications will be clear and your will have achieved your goal.

3.   Leisure sailing   - Your group already works well as a team and now you are rewarding their successes with a relaxing celebratory break.   Premier will organize a leisurely sail out on the Rappahannock River  - just sailing, or include lunch or sunset drinks and hors d’oeuvres  - whatever you wish!

Price. $90 per person.

CORPORATE MATCH RACING

On a higher and more intense level Premier Sailing also organize match racing events. Match racing in particular is ideally suited to the corporate market. The intense one on one nature of the racing - short, sharp races with just two boats racing each other around a small course. Races take 20 minutes and you win or lose - no second places. Races are run the creek right in front of The Tides and the other teams and spectators have enormous fun watching. Boats maneuver so close to each other that on the water umpires are necessary to enforce the rules and give penalties.

We run one big corporate match racing event each year - where company teams race each other for the Cup. Companies are allowed to import a little extra sailing talent (max. 2 per team of 5 people) from outside their company if they so desire. Please contact us for more information and prices for match racing.