The Boat

'The Seahorse' is a Contessa 26, number 184, built by Jeremy Rogers in 1969.

Her long keel and incredibly seaworthy reputation makes her the perfect boat for my trip.

There is some more information about 'The Seahorse' (formerly 'Gerunuk') on her website which the owner put together to help sell her.

How did I raise the money to buy The Seahorse?

- saved £2,000

- £7,000 loan from Baltic Wharf Boat Yard, Founding Sponsor

- sold 4 more gold sponsorships worth £1,500 to local business'

Getting the project off the ground.

Going on the hunt for sponsorship is never easy, especially during a recession.

Not really knowing where to start, I made an initial action plan, with small logical steps that would help me to achieve my next goal. My first step was to seek out a media partner and get a website and some business cards made up.

This may sound trivial, but the cards meant I could follow up any potential leads more effectively, and the carefully worded and professional looking website meant people could find out more information about the project more easily.

In terms of tackling sponsorship, my idea was to keep the whole thing really local, if I could build a hype around the project locally, then local business’s would want to get involved. Especially local business’s who saw local loyalty and locals as their main customers.

Going on the hunt for sponsorship.

So I had a website, some lovely business cards and the general direction of ‘local business’s’ to look for suitable sponsors. However initally I had absolutely no idea where to start, and when I look back, it was embarrassing the way I approached things! I would write to companies and ask for £10 000, along with some reasoned justifications for how it would benefit them, which, as you can imagine, got no responses. This didn’t bother me however, slowly I was understanding more and more about how this whole thing worked and it was great.

I knew that once I had the boat I was off, and that was priority number 1, but overcoming the initial cash flow problem proved difficult at the time. One big step I made was when I considered that all my friends were going off to Uni, and getting loans to fund themselves. So instead of an outright figure, I decided to approach companies for a loan which would be paid back when I sell the boat at the end of the trip.

The concept was perfect, a company suitably aligned to the project could supply a loan over a 3 year period enabling me to buy the boat and complete the trip, before selling it at the end of the project and giving their money back. In return I would be able to offer them advertising space and recognition as my founding sponsors as well other promotional benefits depending on the marketing needs of the specific company in question.

As I said, I was targeting local companies that I truly felt could benefit from creating a partnership with the project, and had developed a hit list of companies that I would approach. I was slowly getting better at making more concise proposals that appealed to their marketing needs and was learning more and more all the time.

One of the companies I approached was Baltic Wharf in Totnes, a well respected local boat yard with fantastic space and facilities. I felt that one of my main audience’s for the trip was local sailors; therefore a local boat yard would do well to support the project as they could easily promote their products and services through the very nature of the trip, and would also help to create ‘boatyard loyalty’ amongst the local sailors in my area. When a response came back it was positive and we arranged a meeting to discuss my trip and the proposal. About a week later I drove up to Totnes after school one day to speak to the Baltic Wharf team.

As I entered the room and saw the assembled managers and directors I stopped in my tracks. It dawned on me that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and a total lack of experience. I went ahead with my planned presentation about why sponsoring this challenge would be so great for them, trying to be as involving and enthusiastic as possible.

By the time I finished none of them looked convinced. I found the presentation part really difficult but, afterwards, when it came to answering their questions, I found it far easier as I could show my passion for the project and my belief that I would make it a success. I found that in many ways this was more of a selling point for companies than the selling points written down in front of me!

After several meetings and detailed negotiations, the team decided to become the ‘Founding Sponsors’ and approved a loan of £7,000 over a two year period to enable me to buy the boat. In return I would be giving them advertising space on the hull and website and recognition as my founding sponsors in the media. It was a really exciting time and a huge step for me as it gave the project great momentum as I now had the money to buy the boat I had my eye on – a beautiful Contessa 26 called Gerunuk. Being a boatyard, I now also had a base for the project and access to their fantastic facilities which I have found invaluable in preparing her for the trip.