There’s not much that is more impressive than a genuine sailing, seaworthy Tall Ship replete with a crew of real sailors brought in just for your very special event. Whether it’s for a corporate party, PR Event, or maybe a wedding reception.

But, a Tall Ship!? Where do you start? Here’s where and here’s a few tips……..

1 – Give yourself as much notice as possible

It’s all about availability first of all. One of the biggest problems we often have when we get a new enquiry for a Tall Ship is a short notice period. Even 6 months is not necessarily a long time. Tall Ships roam and they are expensive to run, like businesses they need to have their next 12 month’s and more mapped out as far as possible.  They get booked up.

Saying that, don’t despair if your event is already looming. It doesn’t mean we cant find you a ship.  We may have even have one nearby and available, just don’t wait any longer assuming you can get one next week!

2 – Be prepared to discuss a budget

You are not expected to know how much a Tall Ship costs for an event and there is certainly no clear and firm ‘price-list’ for this. It is such a subjective issue highly dependent on variables such as 1) event date, 2)  lead-time, 3) the ship’s calendar, 4) other potential business for the ship, 5) your event-needs, and 6) what’s practically possible on a sailing ship.

Points 1-4 particularly may make 100% difference or more to the final price and inevitably involve negotiation, offers, trust, and pledges of hard work on the agents behalf. That’s why an insight into how Tall Ships work commercially and a track record with them is so important.

So, we can give you a ‘ball park’ idea when you first ask the question ‘how much will it cost’? (London: £10-15k+ potentially less.) but we will always qualify this with some of the points above and will need to do some work to determine your ship and availability more accurately. We are not always able to offer instant answers but will work hard to get what you want.

3 – Try not to have ‘too-fixed’ opinions. Accept suggestions

It’s easy to get excited about the vision you may already have of that magnificent Tall Ship gliding to the quay to collect your excited guests, full sails billowing gently in the breeze. Who couldn’t be? And we cant disillusion you, Tall Ships for events are indeed amazing! But, there are ways of making them work best for you and ways of using them the wrong way. There are captains and crew to listen to and keep happy. There are maritime laws to abide by, tides to consider, safety issues to be aware of, and just as importantly, there are things that work, and things that don’t. We’ve usually discovered this through experience.  These ships are not floating hotels or conference halls, and they may not be as flexible in every way.

But…they are better than that! Topsail has more experience than anyone in the UK when it comes to Tall Ship events whether it be one-off events or large maritime festivals.  This guide is just a starter to get you started if you are considering that great impact you get with a Tall Ship. Get in touch with us if you’d like to hear more.

September has brought its benefits during the downturn and good weather is always seriously welcome with a business like ours. Not only did the phones liven up a fair bit and enquiries started to crank up nicely through the websites (www.riversideevents.co.uk and topsailevents.co.uk ) but it got me out on the water quite a bit more. I took to being a skipper again on the River Thames on Sailing Barge Will, covering for those who needed a break.  This is where I started 20 plus years ago and through a long journey, by way of partnerships (mostly successful); maritime festivals (almost all successful) and new ventures (well, you can’t win ‘em all), I gradually got absorbed into the world of offices and admin: too many projects to manage to actually get back out onto the shop floor…..er.. or deck as we call it for anything more than the odd charter job and spot checks. Actually working on board and being in charge of the ship is really quite different and for the moment very enjoyable.

So that was good, a welcome change and useful too and while I wouldn’t exactly say that we are definitely experiencing a return to normality, there are green shoots starting to appear – unquestionably – back in the office and not just in medialand.  So after a fairly tough year reorganising stuff and launching our new catering service www.rfad.co.uk, I needed reminding what it was like to work on board with a Thames dinner cruise or a clay shoot cruise and actually look after the clients needs up close and personal. I am not sure why but I was pleasantly surprised to see how pleased our clients were with the service and operation on board Will. It’s still a buzz to see everybody off your ship and be thanked, often very warmly, by happy customers.  It also lets me make a note of things to improve,  phase out old ideas that really should have been ditched long ago and forces me to acknowledge that the Ops department had been right about certain things all along despite my thinly concealed disbelief. As much as anything else it gets me out and about in the Port of London which never bores me: the constantly changing riverscape, new buildings, old wharves and docks; shifting light, sunsets reflected on Canary Wharf, sunrises moored just below Tower Bridge; the river traffic and its essential bustle; the business and busy-ness of Thames cruises, working ships, boats and barges. It reminds me that the river is the reason why London exists and I love it.

Each year as the frenzy of the London hospitality season dies away at the end of July (perhaps not quite so frenzied this year) it always works out quite well for us at Topsail. As people dash off for holidays, near and far, the marine event and festival season gets well and truly into swing giving the weary City worker the perfect excuse for the marine ‘staycation’ (I can’t believe I used that word); if your family and/or partner are into it. In our case Cowes Week and the Belfast Tall Ships’ port visit came over the horizon to keep us going through the holiday month.

Cowes Week 2009

I won’t lie to you, Cowes was decidedly more subdued this year on the hospitality front, but we still had enough work to bring in the wonderful Tall Ship ‘Atlantis’ and the highlight of the week was when the beautiful, yes this is the only word to describe this piece of craftsmanship, Orient Express Pullman glided into the railway platforms behind the Cunard berths in Southampton Docks and we took a healthy compliment of ‘luxury train heads’ out into the maritime carnival that is Cowes Week. Incidentally, we pick Atlantis not just because she is a superb looker of a ship, but also because the crew and staff are fantastic. Charming, attentive and courteous they get on perfectly with the guests and the Topsail management team find them some of the easiest sailors to work with across the Tall Ship’s or indeed any other fleet.

Food was provided through our own Riverside Food & Drink operation and was very well received – menus specially formulated for the marine environment and I defy any corporate hospitality operation at Cowes to better it for quality, originality and practicality in the marine environment. A job well done, having become the centre of attention in the Solent, the happy train load of newly-created ‘luxury Tall Ship heads’ drifted in 1930’s art deco comfort back towards London after a grand day out. And they’ve booked again for 2010 already – can’t think of a better result!

Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge and Belfast Maritime Festival

Hot on the heels of Cowes came the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge and Belfast Maritime Festival. As is the way with big events we had been campaigning and planning on this one for more than a year. From the success of Liverpool Tall Ships through the Tall Ships Conference in Halifax (Can.) to Belfast’s great day of opening in mid-August ’09. We had staked a lot on this one, as had the city and harbour organisers and the ships racing across the ocean towards us. And it all turned out very well indeed. It’s all about planning and marine event planning is complex – a lot of boxes have to be ticked. For us it was a green field site operation getting to know the people from the harbour, city events dept, caterers and coastguards to name but a few. Renewing old acquaintances amongst the ships and trying to do as much for our customers as the grand plan would allow and that included throwing into the mix unexpected crew changeovers, daily refrigerated van access in a very busy site, firework exclusion zones and commercial shipping movements – and that’s before we started on the hospitality detail – it’s a long story.

In short, the people we worked with over there were fantastic: warm, generous with their time and advice and allowed us to deliver, in my opinion, some of the best work we have ever done. I was proud of our team and pleased to be involved in such a professionally organised event. Full marks and thanks to the event organisers and the the business of Belfast, the people of Belfast and the many more visitors who turned out big time for what was – from the Tall Ships arrival to the grand finale of the Parade of Sail – a fantastic, intense (and sales-target-breaking) experience………

See http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Its a countdown that has been ticking by for us since July last year and as always, now the time has come we wonder where the last 13 months have gone. Nevertheless next week is the Belfast Tall Ships port visit at the culmination of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge 2009. Otherwise known as the Belfast Maritime Festival, this promised to be a big event for the city of Belfast. We were lucky enough to be contracted last year by Belfast City Council to sell and provide all corporate hospitality services on the visiting Tall Ships throughout the 4-day festival.

The ships have been getting closer and closer – we’ve been following them live on this real time tracker and we now know that the mighty Brazilian Square Rigger ‘Cisne Branco’ is the first in port closely followed by the Capitan Miranda. While we take a keen interest in the race aspect, the most exciting part for us is the imminent prescence of all these magnificent ships and their presence together in the famous port of Belfast for the celebration that is to follow. We’ve been busy enthusing about this moment for over a year now and it’s exciting news that the all important finale is nearly here.

We’ve visited Belfast and the surrounding areas many times now visiting potential clients, suppliers, port authorities and our employers for this event Belfast City Council. All in all, the response has been great and certainly always one of overwhelming enthusiasm. Many hundreds of guests will enjoy corporate hospitality between Thursday 13th and Sunday 16th of August on some stunning Tall Ships including Europa, Atlantis, Oosterschelde and the Pirates of The Carribbean ship HMS Bounty. One of our favourite sights will be created once all ships are berthed: a ‘forest of masts’ along the quaysides as sailing ships of all shapes and sizes crowd Queen’s Quay, Albert Quay, Clarendon Dock, Pollock Dock and Custom House Square. Square riggers, Barquentines, Schooners, Gaff Rigs, sloops and more will transform the maritime centre of the city into an area of salty celebration. The city has gone all out in ensuring there will be something for everyone: music stages, fireworks displays, food markets, street entertainers, open ships, live music and a whole lot more.

If you are visiting the festival then all the information you might need can be found here and here including details of transport, ships, and entertainment schedules. We fully recommend seeing the Parade of Sail from Sunday lunchtime – it will be quite a spectacle.

As for ourselves we wil be busy running lots of corporate entertainment for some of Belfast’s most imaginative companies and organisations who saw the festival for the great opportunity it is for them. They will be right at the centre of the action, many of them throwing the ropes and leaving the quaysides for cruises and sails out along the river Lagan. We are going to be busy making sure they have brilliant events but it’s going to be fun. We are very much old hands at this kind of work now, having built up Tall Ship maritime festival experience over the last 12 years; in the last 2 years have worked at the Tall Ships Races’ port visits to both Liverpool during the city’s year of culture and also Falmouth. Belfast promises ot be at least just as great a party as the events in those two great ports.

So, good luck to all the ships and their crew on the last part of their last leg across the Atlantic from the city of Boston. We’ll see you in Belfast next week! Happy Sailing!

Following on from the first blog (and we would still welcome any comments people may have on that one) we have been discussing unusual event ideas again and you may be surprised but we have the feeling that a Wii event would work well on a boat!

Having a Wii event onboard is a recession friendly way of entertaining guests. We already know that people sometimes want more than a Thames cruise and this would be a perfect addition for something to do before or after dinner when the wine has kicked in and people are feeling more competitive than usual.

It makes a simple team building option as well as also something to keep kids amused  (on a wedding reception cruise for example) not to mention the obvious – being a good indoor activity if the weather turns bad. So, basically it is a really versatile and fun activity that doesn’t require much space or time setting up – we like those kind of activities!

I have only played Wii Sports and Super Mario Kart but both of these would be really fun in my opinion (especially if anyone is like my Mum when playing the bowling one, and ends up almost running into the TV screen! – it’s not real!!)

Hey we could even go the whole hog and theme the boat according to the game being played, for example turning the boat into a golf course, or bowling alley – or a crazy Mario land? Then guests could also dress up accordingly!

If anyone has any other comments, or suggestions for Wii games that would work well on a boat then please let us know.

Speaking as someone who pretty regularly is lucky enough to cruise through Tower Bridge on a Topsail Thames Sailing Barge or sometimes a Tall Ship, I am pretty used to seeing Tower Bridge open up from the very best position: right below it. So this picture represents a fairly standard sight for lucky Topsail employees and our clients who have an event with us – apart from one small detail: that Australian and his bike – pretty amazing stuff. Look closely at this picture and you can see him…right there, where things usually are not.

This was Robbie Madison last week, world record holder for the longest motorbike jump, he was 30 metres up at this point (about the height of one of our Thames Sailing Barges’ masts) and flying over a 7.6 metre gap.

There’s more here from The Daily Telegraph in Oz if you are interested. And do excuse them calling it ‘London Bridge’ – they know not what they do.

If you’d like to see Tower Bridge open from up close, but more safely and with a glass of champagne in hand then start here. In the meantime well done to Tower Bridge for being so magnificent and not too stuffy to get involved, and to Robbie and Australia in general.

Just don’t mention the cricket…

One fairly common discussion here in the Topsail office revolves around comments like “What about a Ready Steady Cook cruise?” – “Yeah! Topchef Charters!”. Or perhaps “How do you think a Britain’s Got Talent cruise would go do?”. Indeed we aren’t ones to shy away from trying new ideas out for our events, at least here in the relative safety of our office.

Some events work, some don’t

The truth is that some of them stick and become successful regular events for us that capture the imagination of our clients. Over the years ideas have come and gone. We are still running some of the most successful ones though, our Clay Pigeon Shooting cruises, Cooking Party cruises, and Beer tasting cruises are testament to this. Others like our Strictly Come dancing cruises were really popular but only while the TV show was on – they captured the zeitgeist and had their 15 minutes of fame as it were. Others are newer, we have only just launched our Sushi making cruise as a spin off to our other food-related events but it seems to be getting some interest which bodes well for the future. Others have not done so well and we have scrapped them – now I thought an oyster shucking event would be a winner! That’s obviously what too many oysters did to my brain! Shame. And as for our dear ex-colleague Liz’s ideas. Wacky just wasn’t the word. Has she never heard the old maxim about children and animals? Let alone bringing boats into that particular equation…

Golf on a boat anyone?

One event we had to reluctantly let go of a few years ago was a golf driving cruise event. Following on from our clay shooting cruises we thought this was a great combination of two already popular corporate style events: river cruises and golf. We had sourced the golf balls from the USA (they turn into fish food after three days!), we had cleared the event in priciple with the Environment Agency, we’d worked out how to build a tee-off platform on one of our Thames Sailing Barges and we seemingly had lots of interest when we mentioned it to people. It just turned out that the costs and logisitics involved seemed a bit prohibitive in the end. Maybe it’s worth trying to ressurect that one though? Perhaps around the British Open Golf at St Andrews in July 2010?

And you can do lots of other stuff on boats too. We have put cars on boats, been asked to put full sized tennis courts on ships for PR events, we’ve had french circus acrobats doing amazing displays in the rigging of tall masts; pop stars and fashion magazines have used our vessels for photo shoots. I wonder what’s next???

Actually we are interested in events full stop and would like to hear about any interesting and different, weird and wonderful events you might have held or attended. Let us know…

A competition

And so here I invite your ideas on this. I’m sure there is a world of great ideas for events on the water out there. And when we are on board with clients people do get inspired – just the other day a client thought it would be a brilliant idea to put some theatre on a boat. It’s certainly possible but I’d like to hear more ideas. Make them wacky, crazy, innovative, imaginative, and interesting. As long as they are these things – and legal (!) – then we might just consider turning one of them into a proper event. We thought we might as well make this a mini-competition to stir up the imagination. As a prize there is a bottle of finest champage for the best idea and if we turn your idea into a regular event then we will give you 10% of the revenue from the first one we sell – I can’t say fairer than that!

And finally, OK this isnt strictly events as such, but it’s a great example of some people being creative about boats and should get your creative juices flowing (like spaghetti sauce). It wasn’t us but check out this clever promotional branding on some boats in Germany – I like their style!! Big credit due to Pasta Mondo.

So what do you think? Who’s got the best ideas? Post them as comments on here and win a prize and possibly lots of kudos! We look forward to hearing them…