SAILING HITS THE BIG TIMES! COVERAGE FROM RECENT DISCOVER BOATING PR FLOTILLA
As reported in last month’s edition of Sail America News, NMMA’s PR department and Sunsail jointly sponsored a press flotilla in the British Virgin Islands, co-hosting journalists from the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Daily News, the Canadian Globe and Mail and National Post, Continental in-flight magazine, HuffingtonPost.com and FoxNews.com.
Five participating journalists spent time aboard four Sunsail sailboats including three monohulls and one catamaran, over a seven-day period.
What follows are excerpts from the first of two published articles from the press junket including full-length features in the Huffington Post with 5.4 million monthly unique visitors and the New York Daily News, with 2 million monthly unique visitors. According to NMMA’s Kelly Kaylor, all resulting coverage is also being shared socially on Facebook, Twitter and the Boating Blog.
By JENNY BLOCK
Every summer, for as long as I can remember, my family would spend a month on our sailboat. Me, my mom, my dad, and my little sister sailing up and down the Chesapeake Bay on our 28' Pearson, the Jenny Rebecca. I loved those summers. Playing Yahtzee. Rowing the dinghy ashore. Catching soft shell crabs off the pilings and selling them to nearby restaurants.
It was all so exciting. The waves. The people. The new adventures. I loved how happy and carefree my parents were on those trips. It's hard to be unhappy on a boat. How does that saying go? A bad day on the boat is better than a good day anywhere else. Can't say I disagree.
Once I moved away from home, I didn't get to sail much. Once in awhile we'd spent a weekend on the boat as a family again and eat cereal from tiny, perforated boxed, lined with tin foil so you could pour the milk right inside. We'd talk about our summer trips to Mears Marina in Annapolis or to Mrs. Kitching's on Smith Island.
I miss that time on the boat. Something about the water and the time away from all the hurry of our normal lives. It had been years since I had been sailing when I was offered the chance to sail with a flotilla in the British Virgin Islands. I was delighted and couldn't wait to see how similar -- and different -- my experience might be. This time I went with my girlfriend, a colleague, and a Captain named Alden.
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By JIM FARBER
You don't have to be Jay-Z to spend a week lolling around a spacious yacht in the British Virgin Islands - though the skipper of our far more modest vessel has gone out of his way to point out the $35,000-a-night private island where stars like the Hova and Beyonce hang.
This bit of name-dropping arrives as we're sailing past two tiny islands, both owned by another name-drop-worthy star, Sir Richard Branson. The aforementioned isle caters exclusively to the obscenely rich. The other is currently being developed for the (merely) very rich.
Luckily, you can breathe the same tranquil air, sail the same turquoise seas, or swim with just as many technicolor fish without being in either category. A monohull boat from Sunsail - like those in the cluster I'm rolling with - runs roughly $1,250 a week per person (based on four guests on a vessel).
Better, that price includes all breakfasts, lunches and even one dinner on the boat, a captain to steer you, all docking and mooring fees, plus, of course, the place you'll be gently swayed to sleep. If you're skilled and hearty enough to man your own boat, you can pull this off for significantly less. Just make sure you rent with people you can spend seven days on a 38-ft. boat without killing each other.
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