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Net gains for a company that found a market far from plain sailing

DEBBIE and Adam Purser run their business, Classic Sailing, from St Mawes in Cornwall. It specialises in hands-on sailing holidays and RYA courses on traditionally rigged boats and tall ships. It runs its, own vessel, the Eve of St Mawes, around Cornwall, the Scilly Isles and Brittany. The company also works with other private owners who charter their boats, sailing anywhere from Bermuda to the Baltic. The total business caters for anything up to 600 sailing holidays annually.
"People told us that running a classic boat sailing holiday business in Cornwall was too niche," says Debbie. "They said: 'who would want to come to Cornwall to sail an old-fashioned boat?'" She thought differently and has been proven right. The business offers a range of breaks from women-only trips to wildlife to food-focused outings.

Having found the perfect boat, the Pursers arranged a bank loan to cover the deposit. "We then had over £100,000 to raise. Banks were (and still are) reluctant to loan or offer mortgages on mobile assets such as boats." Selling architect Adam's successful dolls house business freed up capital tobuy the boat. With the business idea and the boat, all they were missing were some customers.
Adam's business background in marketing and databases was critical to the success of Classic Sailing. "Adam has always kept abreast of the latest internet thinking, especially around search engines," said Debbie. "And he subscribes to newsletters such as searchenginewatch.com, or axandra.com. The reasons websites reach the top of the search engine listings change over time."

That knowledge means that when you type in "sailing holidays" on Google, Classic Sailing is on the first page. Hoiliday booking patterns have been shaken up by the internet. "We are dealing with a 'need a holiday right now' generation. The booking pattern changes almost every year. We used to do alot of general PR but it was a lot of work for not much return. Now the skill is giving our holidays a topical spin that matches media interest such as ' low carbon footprint'."
The next plan is even more ambitious than what's gone before. "we plan to build a wooden pirate ship to sail the seven seas." Purser says. "It will start as a new visitor attraction for Cornwall, whereby people can watch the ship being made, the project involves the public in learning about boatbuilding, hasa real purpose of building a wooden seagoing ship for charter and offers family fun advententures on the build site - such as climbing a mast, firing a cannon and getting dressed up as pirates. The ship will be funded by anyone who wants to own a stake."