Four women turn the tide with teamwork

THEY didn’t plan it that way but four women ended up as the crew members on the Challenge Business yacht BG Spirit which is now in TT for a corporate promotion by the BG group. “It wasn’t meant to be like that, it’s just the way it worked. It was just four people who work well together in a team, basically, and we work well with BG,” revealed captain Rachael Dickinson. Rachael and her crew, mate Trish Shaw, Emma Pontin and Katie Noble, all of the UK, arrived here over a week ago to assist in projects conducted by BG. The yacht is leased by BG from the Challenge Business of the UK and was painted in TT with BG’s new corporate colours of orange and black.

The women’s mission will entail taking BG’s employees out for team-building training on the yacht. They too, are working together as a team for the first time and were selected from a group of 30 for this tour. They are all employees of Challenge Business and will sail from port to port on their team-building mission with the intended goal of getting the BG staff working better together as a team, as well as monitor different ports for BG in the Caribbean and the United States. Their undertaking can best be described as “on-board training.” “We take the staff out and do team-building work with them in a corporate environment on board the yacht,” said Rachael at the Crews Inn pier, Chaguaramas. “They virtually go from their offices to a totally alien environment and rebuild and work as a team, just to give them new ideas that, hopefully, they can take back to the office and make a better team. “Their training entails showing them how the sails work so that if they have to do an exercise together or put a sail up together and make it work, and power up the boat, that they may be able to sail the boat without a guide,” Rachael said.

Why did they respond to the lure of the high seas? The adventure and fun. Rachael studied Applied Social Science and Economics but after a five-month voyage on a cruise ship from England to the Caribbean, she became sea-struck and has been sailing for about nine years. She has sailed on two ships and was also involved in wind-surfing, diving and dingy sailing. Trish, too, has a lot of experience, while Katie is not new to sailing as her parents “wet her feet” when she was just three. Emma took the plunge after giving support for the winning boat in a trans-Atlantic rowing race from Boston to South Hampton for Challenge Business in October 2002. While some of their relatives felt they were crazy to venture into the deep, Rachael, 30, Trish, 35, Emma, 33, and Kate, 28, say they are having so much fun they do not wish to switch to another career in the near future. In fact, Emma, gave up her job in London’s legal industry over 18 months ago, to sail the seas after that trans-Atlantic voyage.

“That was fantastic! I loved it very much so I said I’ve got to do this! So, that was it, pretty much. I got a job with Challenge, and here I am. It’s been a very short step up but a quick step up, but a lot of fun.” She was in the Barbados earlier this year for another trans-Atlantic rowing race. Her boyfriend hardly sees her, but he has been coping. However, he’s planning to join her on this tour. “He’s learning to deal with me being away. I am sailing for nine out of the 12 months, so he’s learning to get used to it,” Emma said. This leg of their corporate tour ends in July, but they will be in TT until April 10. From here their stops will also include Barbados,  Jamaica, Texas and Miami, ending in the Solomon Islands.