BG SPIRIT Teambuilding

Friday-Sunday, 12-14 March 2004

I eagerly made my way to the Isle of Wight with a slight feeling of apprehension about our second BG SPIRIT teambuilding event. We were going to spend the weekend dinghy sailing at the renowned UK Sailing Academy (UKSA) in Cowes and the weather was already looking wet and wild. Moreover, I hadn’t set foot on a dinghy in over 15 years and was hoping I would be able to recall my limited experience from way back then.

By Saturday morning the sky had cleared and the team enjoyed a glorious early morning run alongside the River Medina. After breakfast we were kitted out with (and I for one was squeezed into) several layers of wetsuit and given a tour of our dinghies for the day, which included Wayfarers, Topaz Magnos, RS Fevas, and a Laser Pico. We then practised tacking and gybing on the safety of dry land before being towed out onto the water by the UKSA instructors and let loose for some ‘grass roots’ sailing experience.

With conditions starting to get a little gustier, getting to grips with the tiller steering on these responsive little boats was proving tricky and soon enough, Richard [Baker] and I were swiftly tossed into the chilly water during a gybing manoeuvre. Looking around, we could see other team members also demonstrating their swimming abilities with dinghies capsizing all over the place! After warming up over lunch, we returned to the water raring to go and spent an afternoon fun racing around the buoys with yet more collisions and capsizing; as everyone’s competitive spirit emerged. Hot showers followed, then after dinner and a team chat, we met with a couple of other rival Global Challenge teams, and swapped stories over a few drinks in town.

Sadly, gale-force winds caused Sunday’s dinghy racing to be cancelled, so after spending some time discussing our race preparations and fundraising plans for Save the Children, a final teambuilding exercise was organised, involving building a raft from a windsurf board, two barrels, two poles and some rope.

On finishing our expertly designed craft, we were told that we had to race around the course on another group’s raft, producing groans from all those who were confident their own design was best. Back in our wetsuits, we lined up for a Le Mans style start and on Andy’s call, raced down to the water, launched the rafts, paddled … kicked … and dragged them around a buoy, then charged back up the ramp for an exhilarating finish…or so we thought! A second round was called for and this time, back with our original rafts, which were now beginning to fall apart. We had a tremendously exciting last race and a fantastic finale to the weekend.

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Previous Journals

BG SPIRIT Teambuilding
February 2004

Crew Announcement
January 2004

Consolidation Training
May 2003

Development Training
April 2003

Continuation Training
November 2002

Challenge Regatta
July 2002

Continuation
Training
February 2002

Induction Training December 2001

Race Finish
June 2001