Chapter 2 – An office ashore –How we became a booking agent for other boats (2003)

In 2002 Classic Sailing was still paying off a £40 000 ships mortgage and an extra £10,000 business loan. Reality hit. There were never going to be enough margins from Eve to earn enough profit alone to commission a second vessel, and investment the second time around was proving elusive.

At this stage we were very much alone – two of us running a sailing business with big ambitions but so easily flattened by outside events. We had the customer interest, but there seemed no way to expand. We nearly put the company into voluntary liquidation. 

An aversion to liquidation lawyers gave us a kick up the backside to not give up. Ok, we couldn’t afford to commission a new second vessel, but what about a second hand one? It was then we noticed virtually all the UK charter vessels were actually for sale. It made us wonder what was going wrong, where there was clearly a demand for traditional sailing holidays, or were we just better at marketing? 

We produced and posted thousands of letters, leaflets, and brochures. Posted as in by Royal Mail when postage costs where still sensible.

Quite a few good vessels were run by couples. Once they were both at sea for the season then they were unable to market their boats as well. This was in an era where internet access for liveaboards was via unreliable dongles, and in summer the best operators were focussing on their guests and not their latest reel for social media.

The lightbulb moment was – Classic Sailing could be their booking office and marketing gurus ashore. Business owners who were also  skippering their own boat did not have to give up their independence or marketing skills to gain their own customer base, but we could keep the momentum going when they were at sea. The extra margins from commission would help us employ more shore staff and we could start to build an exciting fleet to promote, with vessels that shared our ethos.  Classic Sailing became the first UK travel agents for sailing holidays on traditional boats.

Another side benefit was that we could offer customers more choice of vessel and destination on classic sailing website, and monitor the market trends across the fleet.

Irene Jack was the first vessel we added to our website. Sailing in Cornwall and to Brittany and offering RYA Courses. Bob was a great skipper and he so liked Brittany he moved there. 

Back in those days Adam could, with about 2 hours work, get Classic Sailing onto the top of page 1 for Google Searches. We built our own website from a Microsoft product Front Page – like this from 2002

Things have changed but the principles are the same. This is the text from 2002

Eve of St Mawes’s skippers, Debbie and Adam,  love sailing but the emphasis is on giving you an experience you will enjoy. We take care to suit the voyage to your requirements and abilities whether for RYA courses or other voyages. Developing an ecological understanding is a natural but un pushy aspect of our voyages, particularly in the Isles of Scilly. Eve is a new but traditionally built wooden pilot cutter with all mod cons below deck.  Her good looks make her and you welcome where ever we go. 

Just substitute Tallulah for Eve of St Mawes and retire Adam to the shore and that is us today.

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