Spring time extended offer

Welcome to Spring time with Sea Events. As you may have noted on our home page we had an offer to freeze our 2011 prices if a charter was booking prior to 1st March this has now been extended.

Our 5 year inspection of our boat “Nirvana” will be completed over the next few days. While our launch date is set for 27th March 2012 where upon we will be fully open for business for the forthcoming coming season.

As a reminder we operate from April until the end of October and yes even in the latter month the weather can be superb. Last year we had a charter in 27°C ! Not bad for the UK. This summer looks to be a hot one and while we all wish rain for the farmers and gardeners – we are secretly hoping for a long dry spell by the sea !!

We currently have availability for many days in the coming summer months which you can combine should you so wish with some of the many events mentioned on our calendar “events” page.  We would be only too happy to discuss any of our charters or a bespoke charter for a particular occasion.

Please take advantage of our current offer which will not be available for much longer!

We look forward to hearing from you shortly.

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January & February Sales

Welcome to Sea Events in 2012. We hope you’ve had a very happy Christmas and New Years celebration.

Apart from the usual high street sales in January, it is often a time to think about booking a holiday as the year begins to unfold and not leave it to the last minute in July! Whether you may be thinking of a family visit or longer holiday to Dorset this summer or perhaps chewing the cud thinking – what on earth can I do this year to keep my staff happy with so much doom and gloom around?

Well, we think we might have the answer. Instead of booking that same old golf day, what about something completely different but for the same cost? How about an exciting boat ride chasing the much renowned Dorset World Heritage Jurassic Coast to a calm bay for a relaxing afternoon, drinking and eating the most delicious food. May be a swim too?

Either way, we guarantee real fresh air on the sea! There’s a great deal to be done on the water but how you choose and where you choose to do it is largely up to you – well as long as its between Portsmouth and Weymouth. Whatever the occasion, be it corporate or private we will take you there in style and comfort.

The family will still be talking to each other but with big smiles all round and Kevin from accounts will be desperately hoping to come again next year. That’s for sure…

Ok, so what sale are we offering? Well, if you book us for your Sea Events experience this year but before 1st April, we will hold our 2011 fees for your charter.

Please take a look at our website for further details and we look forward to hearing from you – hopefully before July!

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Sea Events 2012 Website

There’s nothing more irritating than looking at a previous year’s website approaching or even in the New Year. Hence, we have now completed this process in respect of any major changes to business for 2012. Of course you will find that we tweak the site throughout the year in order to keep you fully informed of all our activities and special offers.

Our “Events Page” has now been fully updated in readiness for the 2012 season. One of the reasons why we call ourselves “Sea Events” is because we take a keen interest in all events taking place along the south coast from Portsmouth to Weymouth.

So, as well as enjoying your day charter with us, you might also wish to coordinate the day with a particular event or activity e.g. the Bournemouth Air Show or Cowes Week Regatta to name but two. There are many other events which we regularly advise on our “Events Page”, however if you can think of one that we haven’t – then please feel free to let us know.

We believe that we still represent great value in respect of all our charters at Sea Events. Increased costs have only occurred where they have been imposed on us – it’s as simple as that. We are mindful also that any increase is below the current level of inflation.

Our regular viewers will know that we added some new charters during last year including, “90 Minute Cruise” and “Evening Sundowner Cruise” and for the New Year we’re looking forward to adding our “Fireworks Fizz” cruises.

Hopefully, there is now a cruise for everyone to enjoy!

Watch out for our special offers coming up in 2012 and we very much look forward to hearing from you.

Very Happy Christmas and New Year
From all at Sea Events

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2011 Seasonal “School Report”

Despite the recessional blues in 2011, we are happy to report our most successful season in our fifth year of operation at Sea Events.

Our season started as always in April which saw some fantastic early summer sunshine – in fact hotter than many of the days to follow throughout the summer itself. From that month onwards we were pleased to see bookings up for both corporate and private charters across our range. Additionally, we believe that our almost frozen price strategy in keeping with good value for money assisted this process. As an example our Full Day Charter cost at £1,250 for a full 8 hours on the water was only a 4% increase on 2010 despite ever increasing fuel costs!

Early summer, May and June were also good as witnessed by Dorset Society Magazine coming on board to assist us with our video and subsequent flattering editorial report published in the July issue. Although, August’s weather seemed to be a tad patchy, we did get to see all the main events in sunshine which seem to culminate in this important month. The wonderful Cowes Week Regatta, Bournemouth Air Festival and spectacular evening fireworks events, as usual proved both fun and popular.

Both September and October were reasons enough as to why we keep chartering each year later into the season. We’re not sure if you call it an Indian summer but whatever it was the weather gave us plenty of warm days – we were positively hot by October! Apparently, October was the hottest ever on record.

On 1st November “Nirvana” was lifted out of the water for our usual servicing and winterization over the winter months in order to be on flying form ready for 2012!

We are enormously grateful to Tony Beale of Beales Gourmet Catering whom provide our specialist food menus which are always so deliciously tasty and beautifully presented. We’ve never had a single complaint about our food – in fact quite the contrary – Tony seems to have a brilliant knack of knowing just what’s required on a boat!

Our website is “tidal” – in that it never stands still! It is our much valued shop window which we try to keep as user friendly as possible, keeping you regularly updated with events throughout the season. Our two main developments this year have been our “Captains Log” page (our blog!) and our video found therein which does much to explain our days enjoyed on the water.

Perhaps the greatest reference to what we try to achieve is witnessed by our client written testimonials which we think is worth ten times more than anything we could possibly publish ourselves – no matter how big or small! To that end we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our clients who have kindly taken time out to write about us.

Finally, we pride ourselves on our professional approach to customer service, added value and to go that extra mile – in some cases literally!

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Studland Bowl Regatta Event 2011

We were lucky enough to be involved in both sailing regattas this year organized by Ex British Olympic Sailor – Rodney Pattisson MBE. The two regattas are set a few months apart being June and the recent September event.

“Nirvana” was acting as a “Committee Boat” setting up both start and finishing lines for this exciting Trimaran Sailing Regatta. It is probably fair to say that these three hulled machines are often underrated in terms of pleasure craft, let alone the fact that they can double the speed of a conventional mono hulled sailing boat with ease.

We had near perfect conditions for this event with sustained winds of force 5 which made for very exciting racing, particularly as they jockeyed for poll position before the “off”. Most if not all boats are stripped out inside – yes including the “kitchen sink” and while Rodney bans himself from taking the helm, he does admit to carrying a very light weight anchor. There is no doubt that Rodney is still the star of the show in everyway as he makes his apologies known for yet another win!

This is a great event with the right ingredients of fun and healthy competition in a relaxed friendly environment.

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Bournemouth Air Show

The Bournemouth Air show was spectacular this year though very sadly over shadowed by the events that followed by the loss of a much loved member of the Red Arrows. We would like to pay our respects to these extremely brave and talented members of the RAF for without them the show would not go on in the way that we know and love best.

Ironically, we all agreed that this year’s show was the best since Bournemouth Council undertook this now well known tourist attraction on this part of the coast. To watch this show from “Nirvana” is truly special in that you can literally wave to the pilots as they pass!! Anyone who has not witnessed this massive adrenalin rush viewed by boat needs to book us as we look forward to an even better show next year.

Our thoughts at this time are with the many family and friends of Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging of the RAF/Red Arrows.

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“I wonder if life can get better than this?”

Great article about Sea Events in July’s issue of Dorset Society magazine, by Nicky Findley. “I have always spent my summer holidays here since I was a small boy,” Mark explains. “My mum taught me to sail here and although I have travelled the world I always come back to Poole for the summer.” A few minutes later Tony Beales of Beales Gourmet Ltd who does most of the catering for Sea Events, cracks open the bottle of bubbly and his assistant James Matthews dishes out some hors d’oeuvres. Sitting in the cockpit with a champagne flute in hand, watching the world drift by, I wonder if life can get better than this?

After exploring the bay we anchor near Studland Bay for lunch. Tony and James disappear downstairs for five minutes and then re-appear armed with large platters of sumptuous canapés including asparagus wrapped in Palma ham with truffle oil, smoked salmon with chive cream and caviar on home-made blinis, prawn and crayfish cocktail in scallop shells and a selection of sandwiches. As if on queue, the sun comes out and a few seagulls start soaring high above our heads hoping for some titbits. Heaven – or in this case Nirvana!

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Nirvana in action on the South Coast

Welcome to Sea Events – please take a look at our new video. These shots I hope will give you an excellent insight into what we do best at Sea Events – the most luxurious and innovative charters on the South Coast of the UK.
Enjoy! Mark Everington, Managing Director/Skipper

Video – thanks to Rob Smith at Studio 2 Media Ltd.

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Cruise News at Sea Events

We welcome you all to the revised “Fee” page of our website here at Sea Events.

Although, our Full Day and Half Day Charter prices remain the same – which is good news, we would also like to draw to your attention our finest selection of the most delicious food. There is a choice of six different menus to add to your Full Day Charter. Our food comes from the renowned Beales Gourmet Catering organization and you will find that we have tweaked the menus for added appeal. We hope you will enjoy.

In a Half Day Charter, we now include light refreshments within the price.

For the first time this year, we have mentioned our “90 Minute Cruise” and “Evening Sundowner Cruise” on the fee page. In fact, we have been operating similar charters to those now mentioned for some time. Just that now they are easier to request and represent great value, particularly if you’d rather not be out all day or night! For the Evening Sundowner Cruise and at little extra cost, you could make it really special by enjoying a few glasses of Champagne to accompany your evening. Cheers!

Ok – looking at our Events page there’s a lot going on. If anyone has seen the Bournemouth Air Festival sitting on a boat you’ll know what we mean when we say “you can wave to the pilot!” – Any lower and they’ll knock the radar off the boat! It is a magnificent site to watch and when you think you’ve had enough we could always wiz off for a late lunch in Studland Bay – now there’s a thought.

We also do bespoke trips to watch the Cowes Week Regatta – even if you’re not really into sailing this is another great view from the boat. Watching some of the best skipper’s in the world jockeying for position amongst million’s of boats – or is that what they cost?! – Is a truly spectacular sight.

Bournemouth is also lit up on several nights during the course of the summer evenings with their wonderful and exciting displays of fireworks. All the evenings for fireworks events are mentioned on our Events page and it’s not just Bournemouth – the Sandbanks fireworks can be equally as spectacular.

Whatever you’d like to do this summer – come and do it on the water with Sea Events! Mark

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“Summer is coming!”

This is our fourth season at Sea Events and despite difficult financial times which seem to coincide almost on the day we started – things seem to be going from strength to strength with each passing year.

We try to continue to give good value for money and our current offer, freezing 2009/10 pricing making a Full Day Charter £120 per person,** (based on 10 people sharing ex food and beverage) – we hope is testament to this view.

As a reminder, our boat “Nirvana” is fully MCA licensed and insured to carry up to twelve persons but that has to include a qualified RYA skipper and one crew. Unlike other charter firms we insist on a permanent crew member who is trained to assist the skipper on board as well as attending to all our guests. Leaving you the time to relax and enjoy your charter.

We like to be as flexible as possible and so just because we’re based out of Poole doesn’t mean that we can’t pick up clients from other destinations. So, depending upon our client’s preference and type of sea event, we can also arrange to pick up/land from other places such as Portsmouth, Ocean Village in Southampton, Cowes, Buckler’s Hard – Beaulieu River, Lymington, Yarmouth, as well as Weymouth and others to the west of Poole.

There is a reason why we have chosen to call our business “Sea Events” – it is, if you like, a thinking man’s or should I say woman’s charter. In that we may follow all the events taking place from May to October – from Portsmouth to Weymouth. Hence, you might like to have a corporate day charter watching the Bournemouth Air Show or a family day charter lunching at Allum Bay gazing at tons of boats during the Cowes Week Regatta. For these and other events you may wish to check out our “events” page on the website where you will find many listed but we know there are a whole lot more. So if you’ve noticed something we’ve missed that you’d like to see – just shout.

Alternatively, you may wish to choose none of the above options, preferring to cruise the infamous Dorset Jurassic coastline in peace whilst quaffing a smooth refreshing glass of rose. Ending up at Lulworth Cove for lunch, perhaps a swim – yes swim! Then return to Poole via Studland Bay after tea. In any event the choice is yours at Sea Events.

When we first set up the business we also recognized that we needed some good food to accompany a day charter. Finding something both practical and tasty while afloat without too many sources to spill all over the decks, proved to be quite a challenge! Then we met a guy who not only serves excellent food, way above our expectations but who also has buckets of experience having worked his magic on 80 footers in the Mediterranean – his name, Tony Beale of Beales Gourmet Catering. Anyone interested or not even interested in food needs to know about this guy. He’s a top man.

By the way – we don’t mind what you’re celebrating or not as the case maybe. Last year we had a wonderful romantic engagement on board and this year I’ve had a few enquiries to celebrate divorce! – I hasten to add it was not the same couple. But I think you get our drift if you excuse that dreadful pun! We’ll give you an excellent Corporate day out and even a mini conference on board to a fun family occasion to celebrate Dad’s 50th or Tim’s Stag do.

Ok – so if you book a charter with Sea Events a lot of people will ask – what if the weather is bad on the day. Well, the skipper has the final word on safety and will not put to sea in adverse weather conditions. We want you to enjoy your day not make it a trial! So, if the skipper cancels, it will be for all the right reasons but then you will have a choice of what to do next. Both a full refund of your money or an alternative date/time agreed between client and Sea Events will be offered. (For further details on all of our terms and conditions it would be advisable to click on “terms and conditions” at the bottom of our application form on the website www.seaevents.co.uk).

We aim to give you a great day out on the water no matter what the occasion and if you’re having fun then we know we’ve done our job properly.

We very much look forward to seeing you some sunny day – this year!

Mark

** Offer on until 1st April 2011

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