Sailing spurs bonding, competition

Herb Marshall doesn’t mind if nobody at your company has ever been on a sailboat or knows a lick about the America’s Cup races. He still thinks it’s a good idea to bring the whole staff down to Newport, hop on one of America’s Cup Charters’ six 12-Meter yachts and take a spin in Narragansett Bay.
It’s not even an issue if some workers tend to get seasick, said Marshall, who has co-owned the yacht-charter business with George Hill since 1987.
“The thing that most people worry about is whether they’ll get seasick,” Marshall said. “Well, sailing in Narragansett Bay is like sailing in a big lake. It’s just a great spot to race in and sail around in.”
His sailboat-charter company has grown over the years to employ about 20 during the summer in Newport. Up until last year, the last few summers had been progressively busier, Marshall said. But, as with many companies, sales started to wane last summer.
“I think the economic climate last year was beginning to dig in a little bit,” Marshall said. “And I think this summer we’ll have to work just that much harder … working for those corporate dollars, whether they’re from Providence or Newport, is going to be tougher this year.”
In the past, the company hasn’t relied too much on advertising, although it has tried ads in sailing magazines and The Wall Street Journal. Those didn’t bring in many clients. Its most successful marketing has been through its membership in the Newport County Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, Marshall said.
And those partnerships are what the company is relying on to weather a slowdown.
“I think you find that companies that are going to come to this area are going to call or write to the chambers of commerce,” Marshall said. “Those groups are going to be able to tell them what to do in the area and the price of hotels” and then they can promote America’s Cup Charters at the same time. Along with its corporate charters, America’s Cup offers weekend and nighttime passive sails where a few people can buy tickets and just take a cruise. “But most of our bread and butter, what we need to support these boats, [comes from] the corporate entities,” Marshall said recently. “That’s a big part of our business.”
And seeing the product firsthand has also become a selling point. That’s why the company sometimes will offer complimentary night cruises to one or two executives from a company. Often, those executives will come back with their staffers, Marshall said.
Corporate cruises range from two hours to daylong excursions. A group of up to 12 people can get a three-hour tour for less than $2,000. Most days, one or two companies charter yachts for four hours, the most popular amount of time. But some days, an international company might bring in 60 people and take five yachts for the whole day.
America’s Cup Charters got its start in 1987 – 146 years after the America’s Cup race was founded – when Marshall teamed with George Hill. Marshall had recently bought the American Eagle, a 12-Meter class boat that was built for the 1964 race and had been owned by Ted Turner. And Hill recently had bought the Weatherly, a 1962 America’s Cup winner.
“We teamed up to charter these boats in Newport and give clients a chance to see what it’s like to race and sail on an America’s Cup boat,” Marshall said.
In the early 1990s, they bought two more boats, the Intrepid and the Nefertiti. And since then the fleet has grown to six.
The 12-Meter yachts don’t get their name from their length, but rather from a mathematical formula based on the size of their sail, keel and a few other measurements. They are between 65 feet and 68 feet in length. The class has been around since 1906, but wasn’t used in the America’s Cup until 1958. Since 1987, the International America’s Cup class has taken the place of the 12-Meter class in the Cup. In Newport, about 20 of the 12-Meter class of boats are active and nine of those are in the charter business, Marshall said.
Each of the America Cup Charter’s yachts can carry up to 12 people, along with the captain and two crew members. The guests “work the sheet on the main” sail or work the “grinders” that turn the drums that bring the sails in, Marshall said.
“And then you have some people who don’t want to do anything,” he added, “and they can just sit and enjoy … go for an easy cruise and have some snacks and a beer.”
But most corporate groups aren’t passive guests. Because being on a sailboat is largely interactive, it lends itself to the attitude that many businessmen already have, he added. “Most groups are pretty competitive even though they don’t have any sailing experience,” Marshall said. “We’ll give them a little education on the history of the America’s Cup, how the boats work, and then we break them into teams. …Then we’ll do a few races.”
And for Providence companies, many of which bring clients down, the charters are another way to show off Rhode Island’s history. Marshall likened Newport’s waterfront to the history of the Newport Mansions and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“But this isn’t passive. They get out on the boats and everybody is doing something – it’s energizing,” Marshall said. “Because everybody can get involved, even with no level of sailing experience, and get back at the end of the day with the feeling that they were part of it. That’s what’s really nice about the team building aspect of it.” &#8226