May 2007
When sailing goes global - and takes you with it

ONDECK has allowed me the good fortune to enrich people's lives through sailing.

In my five years as a female Skipper, my own life has been transformed by yachting. I have visited 3 continents, 18 countries and have sailed more than 35,000 sea miles. My real desire in all of this has been to share this amazing sport to an incredibly wide variety of people, some of whom sail regularly, but the majority have never stepped foot on a sailing yacht in their life.

As a student Skipper I was drawn to a fleet of spectacularly gracious boats sailing in the Solent, UK. The Farr 65's are impressive high performance race yachts. They were designed in 1999 by Bruce Farr to be versions of the world famous Whitbread 60. These superb modern ocean racing yachts were built at a cost of US$2 million each. The brief was to produce a high performance racing yacht in which amateurs could safely sail around the world. Although they have the performance of a Grand Prix yacht, they are extremely user friendly, for even the most novice of crews.

I found the boats and tracked down the company that owned them. That is when my relationship with ONDECK began.

Not only were the boats of interest to me, but the concept behind the business was also intriguing. The idea of a company within the sailing industry that is professionally corporate is a breath of fresh air! Chairman, Peter Anthony, having sold his own very successful IT company was looking for a challenge back in 2004, and what better challenge than to try to make money out of a sailing business? When he set eyes on the Farrs he not only appreciated that the yachts deserved to stay together as a fleet, but he also a understood that they could become a perfect platform for his innovative offering to novices and
sailors alike.

His aim: to be the best corporate and individual sailing and racing specialist in the world.

In 2006 ONDECK grew by 600%, expanded to the US Virgin Islands and Antigua and employed over 30 people in the Caribbean and the UK. ONDECK's annual schedule never stops with race excursions and team builds in the Caribbean, a Trans-Atlantic Challenge in May, a busy Corporate Summer season in the UK and ONDECK's own Transatlantic Rally via Lisbon, Madeira, Cape Verdes and Barbados in September.

ONDECK is continually reaching towards a pioneering global growth within the sailing industry. ONDECK maintains an excellent level of customer service and has 98% client satisfaction and 85% repeat business.

ONDECK has given me the platform to reveal these realities to someone like you; this is why I do what I do:

There is a certain rush and excitement that you get every time you turn the engine off and harness the nature of the wind and the waves.

There is a quiet majesty in night sailing under thousands of stars unaffected by light pollution that you would never normally see.

There is a magical playfulness in the sparkling green phosphoresce that comes alive in the waves at night.

There is an unspoken comradery and familiarity that is built up between strangers who sail together that you cannot put a price on, a shared experience that can never be lost.