Zurich Charters Yacht America from San Diego to Vancouver, BC

In late April our beautiful yacht America headed off on the longest charter since she arrived in San Diego on April 9th, 2006. Zurich Insurance had used America previously in San Diego sailing to impress their corporate guests during an important insurance conference. On that occasion the yacht entertained guests for early breakfast discussions, lunch atmosphere and serious business meetings, afternoon sails and evening sailing and dining experiences on our pretty bay. That was for 3 days only back in 2009, but they had such great feedback and exposure at that event that the Zurich marketing department and management decided they’d like to make just as big an impression in Vancouver, BC for the 2011 event.

In San Diego they used the ‘America’ as their hospitality suite, but they also branded the sails of our two 80 Ft America’s Cup race yachts and when they went out on the water with guests there wasn’t anybody in the downtown area that didn’t see them. This was an awesome example of corporate branding. The Zurich guests who sailed on the yachts were probably thinking that Zurich owned these yachts as the sail graphics were as good as any sponsored sailing team in the world. Here’s what they looked like:

Pretty impressive aren’t they! When Zurich took larger groups out on the bigger America those folks would also see the Zurich sails. They make quite a statement.

So moving forward to 2011 and this very important conference RIMS is this year in Vancouver, BC. This is a very beautiful city laid out with its downtown up against the bay just like San Diego. What better way to impress their clients and peers than to bring the Zurich sailboat to town. Unlike the 2 yachts in the above photos that cannot leave San Diego for such a journey our magnificent yacht America is capable of travelling anywhere in the world. Her journey to Vancouver was not without the typical hard times with 20 ft waves over the bow for near 20 hours during one part of the journey. Ultimately she arrived in Vancouver none the worse for wear after 7 days journeying up the Western seaboard.

For the next 5 days Zurich entertained their VIP guests on the yacht America hospitality suite, morning, day and night just as in San Diego…….and all went well. It went very well in fact! Zurich were again the talk of the convention. Their guests sailed on the beautiful yacht, deals were done, cocktails devoured, meals consumed and everybody went away delighted. Here’s a single photo showing yacht ‘America’ in Vancouver.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is a nice letter from our client:

—–Original Message—–

From: Janet [mailto: @zurichna.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 6:53 AM To: Warren Allan; Troy Sears

Hi Warren,

Hope all is well with you. Yes, the weather has been on and off but once again, we have made a statement in town – we ARE the talk of the town. Our executive team couldn’t be more pleased. We’ve had a great response to the sail boat including industry press coverage. I will forward you a separate email on the coverage. We are in the home stretch now with our final day and evening VIP reception. Let’s touch base next week for a debrief as we finalize the invoice, etc.

Thanks,

Janet

The ‘America’ is back in San Diego conducting corporate charters and Blue Whale Sunset Sails after a brief stopover in San Francisco. A company like Zurich can’t be wrong. If you want to impress your clients while at meetings in San Diego, then please give us an opportunity to assist you.