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Giles Travel All At Sea... Last month saw the annual Business Travel Yacht Regatta held at Hamble, near Southampton – a challenge which, despite no previous sailing experience, we just couldn’t resist! How hard could it be, right?Finding our sea legs and donning our waterproofs, Crew Giles bravely climbed aboard the good ship ‘Jet’ and set out to sea. In incredibly windy conditions, which had actually closed ferry services at nearby Portsmouth, we were pitched against six other teams all eager to be crowned Regatta Champion and claim the incredible first prize of an all expenses paid trip to Antigua, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic and the Antigua Tourist Board. As the siren wailed to mark the start of the race we were well placed among the pack and made a promising start. Thanks to the expert guidance of our professional skipper, Team Giles were soon vying for the lead as our yacht skimmed and crashed through the dramatic Solent waves. At the turn we sailed onto the inside and stole the lead! With the wind in our head and the salty sting of the sea on our face we held our nerve and the racing line to cross the finish line just a length ahead of our closest competitor. We had WON! We were going to Antigua!!! And then we realised it was best of three. However, the next race proved just as thrilling and we were marginally pipped to second place after a tremendous fight back from a confused start. So, going into the third and final race it was all to sail for! Again, we managed a second place ranking – a great effort following a pretty poor start. But, despite the seven crew tournament, it was only ever a two yacht race and we eventually lost out on the overall first place by just one point. Antigua will have to wait for another year. Crew Giles certainly did us all proud and a huge well done and ‘yo ho ho’ goes out to all our intrepid sailors: Kirsti Palmer and Robert Brown of our Specialist Airfares Team, senior travel consultant Tash Handsley and Sue Robinson, Hotels Booking Manager. And, of course, a massive thank you to the plucky clients who joined us on the day, including Mike Edwards of Gomaco and our secret weapon, John Pothecary of RPS, without whom it would have been a very different story! News Date: 12-10-2011 |
