PLAIN SAILING?

Talking Tourism has been speaking to ‘salty seadog’ Tracey Boyne, owner of Mylor Sailing and Powerboat School to find out about her business and how it led her to start the charity, Mylor Sailability, which helps those with disabilities get on to the water.

When was the business founded and at what point did you get involved? And, what is your background? The business has been going since the 1970s and the training school came up for sale in 2006 and a friend offered me an opportunity of a 50/50 split. I was then teaching at Truro and Penwith College on the outdoor education and other sports qualifications. This was teaching sailing, windsurfing, climbing and other theoretical coaching modules. After a few years, my business partner got offered another opportunity, so I bought him out in 2013. After 12 years, I took voluntary redundancy from Truro College at the same time. A bit of a leap of faith, but after the sad loss of my mother in 2012 I felt the need to push myself and take some risks. I have never looked back and working individually allowed me to develop the business in so many ways and I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Can you explain what it is you do and the variety of services you offer? Our tag line is ‘From absolute beginners to salty seadogs’. We are governed by the Royal Yachting Association and run accredited courses for dinghy, keelboat and powerboat training for people between the ages of 6 and 106! We also have shore-based courses for VHF Marine Radio and Navigation. All our sailing and powerboating is accessible and inclusive to all. How has the business evolved over time? When I first bought the school, we had one motorboat (RIB) and around six small sailing dinghies, all a little tired and in need of some TLC. After a lot of investment back into the business over the first few years, we built the fleet to three RIBs and ten decent sailing boats. This has then grown to meet demands not only by the amount of people but also the type of training that is requested. The fleet now exists of six motorboats, three keelboats and 18 smaller sailing dinghies. We have around 50% local business and 50% visitors. Sailing and powerboat training has increased hugely and although we are open all year round, the shoulder periods have filled well, with our main operating times between March and October. I have always tried to improve the business and access as much free business support as possible. There is a lot of free help out there, you just have to find it. Being a member of the Cornwall Marine Network has helped hugely with training, marketing and business advice and general support. I am a great believer in providing as much training as possible for all staff, with customer service, personal skills and teaching skills.

Can you tell us about the charitable arm of the business? After going it alone I really wanted to

develop a more accessible aspect. With some great advice from the County Sports Partnership at Cornwall Council, and the RYA, I started a charitable arm of the business, Mylor Sailability. This seemed the easiest option to be able to apply for grants and funding to reduce one of the main barriers to sailing and powerboating, the cost. I had to prove the demand though. Together, with three-times Olympic Paralympian, John Robertson, we held an open day in October 2013. I was blown away with over 110 people pre-booking for the taster sessions. As a direct result of the success of the open day, Mylor Sailability was formed in spring 2014 as a Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Initially using the facilities and the equipment of Mylor Sailing and Powerboat School, Mylor Sailability initially provided four sailing sessions per week for up to 30 participants, then sharply increasing to seven and is currently ten, due to demand. Over the years, through a combination of fundraising events and successful grant applications, Mylor Sailability now has two specially adapted sailing boats to accommodate up to 14 people at a time, a hoist and a wheelchair friendly powerboat that can take up to eight people. A successful grant from Sport England built our ramped access classroom and specialist pontoon. Since the Open Day, in 2013, we have created links with many local and national organisations and we have consistently delivered between 5-10 regular sessions per week, which equates to over 600 sailing days to over 2,000 participants.

And you’ve won a number of awards over the years Yes. We’re always trying to create as much publicity as possible for Mylor Sailability to promote the facilities we have to offer here. So I decided in 2016 to apply to be considered for the Cornwall Tourism Awards in the Access and Inclusivity category. This is a three-stage process, of application for consideration, a mystery visit, and the judging panel. We were blown away when we won the Silver award and then went on to win the Gold award at the South West Tourism Awards (out of six counties), jointly I might add, with the amazing All our Eden Project. I’m still milking that one! sailing and Feeling lucky and learning powerboating is so much for the process to help improve all aspects of accessible and the business, I applied again in inclusive to all. 2018, this time winning the Gold, then Silver at the South West Awards and the Silver at the Visit England Awards, blimey! All of this process has raised so much awareness for our accessible sessions to those who need it and also to people who want to either donate or help in any way they can. That has been the most humbling of experiences, from the people who have been in touch to offer their help. I won’t bore you with many more award wins, but we were also successful in the 2019/20 awards process and I applied for a couple more categories this time, Sporting Activity of the Year (winning Gold), Learning Experience of the year (Bronze) and Access and Inclusivity (Gold). Due to this success we also won the ‘Winner of Winners’ award which was such a great honour.

Where do you see the business going over the next five years? After working in this business for almost 15 years now, I feel that I have found a good varied fleet to suit all needs. I don’t want to increase the fleet much as think that we would lose the quality of the training. I always invest a lot in the business each year to maintain good quality boats, selling on and replenishing with new boats. Ongoing improvements are always staff development and gaining more advanced relevant qualifications for the team. I love creating new projects for Mylor Sailability to always ensure that we are being as inclusive as possible.