PLATFORM FOR ADVENTURE

A true bluewater yacht is born to be used, to explore the world, to make dreams come true. Expedition skipper Louie Hubbard is leading a new drive to help every DISCOVERY owner turn their yacht into a platform for adventure. We started by asking him where his journey started…

By Gael Pawson

I love this type of boat. For about 15 years I’ve either owned or skippered similar boats, so I know what they need and what you can do with them. The other side of what I do is event creation, so I understand how to do things in difficult places, how to organise adventures and experiences and create life-long memories.

I had the pleasure of owning a secondhand one about 10 years ago. We did lots of adventuring as a family – we took a sabbatical for a year, did the Atlantic and things like that. It was the best thing we ever did.

Where does the drive to help others use their boats more come from?

When I was very young, I used to go with my dad across to the Channel Islands, but he was fairly averse to putting the sails up. I realised that a lot of people have boats and put a lot of money into them, and yet they never really understand how to properly use them. So that’s where being a support and giving confidence comes in. If we can help an owner get even just 10 per cent more out of their boat, then we are all winning.

What’s different about DISCOVERY’s approach?

I think new owners need more time than is generally given to them. That must be built into our relationship. They need to be able to feel that they can pick the phone up and talk to somebody that they know and have that confidence that you really are there for them. Their journey needs to be to be part of the brand’s journey. DISCOVERY is niche, it’s small, and therefore, you can really look at who is buying and how they’re experiencing the boats. It needs to be taken into account from the very beginning. It’s not an afterthought, it’s more, it’s far more.

So it’s about training, coaching, support?

All of that and more. We want owners to be able to get the maximum experience out of what they are buying. You buy something as complicated as this, and it’s not that easy, there is an awful lot that needs to be learned, and some people are coming in with no experience at all. It restricts people if they don’t learn, it holds them back, and it doesn’t allow them to have the experience that they should be having. So the first part of our ‘zero to hero’ idea is to make sure that if somebody comes and buys a DISCOVERY, we can help them realise their dream voyage – we want them to enjoy what they’ve got as fast as possible. We want to be that human interface, where they can properly understand how to use these incredible machines. That way, when they leave, they’ve got enough experience that they can start their journeys a lot quicker and with a lot more confidence. We need to provide the confidence and the backing and safety net. And that support is ongoing, if owners need the boat provisioned, we’ll do a 24/7 concierge service. They are flying into Sardinia for their holiday? We can send a team to get their boat ready. They might even want the skipper to stay on for a couple of days to blow some cobwebs out and give them some training before they leave.

And you’re planning to run some events, something DISCOVERY hasn’t done before?

Yes, that’s the expedition or adventure programme. The idea is to extend support for more adventurous sailing. A team of skippers will be on hand, so if you want to take your family somewhere very adventurous, you can be professionally guided. Then maybe two or four years later, you can do that same trip again on your own with your family, knowing that you’ve been and done it before. We’ll also organise events – for example, we think that Greenland is something that we might go for, but the programme will be led by the owners themselves. There are 75 boats out there at the moment, 75 owners. We want to understand what they’ve done, what they haven’t yet done, the type of things they’d like to do if they had a bit more experience and backing. We want to figure out who these individuals are at the moment, who is joining the adventure and what we can do to boost their experience. That’s the starting point, the beginning of our adventure. It doesn’t have to be 20 boats. It can be three, it can be four. And it’s not just going to be about the pretty beaches, I think we will be exploring the latitudes, getting further up towards the Arctic and places like that, territories you don’t see a lot of.

So you’re creating a community, a Yacht Club?

Exactly. With options for new owners, part owners or past owners to join the conversation. They have to feel that it’s their experience and that we can help them create that. Obviously, at the same time, we can try and give suggestions. We can try and organise things which we think owners might enjoy. You’ve got to start with who the owners are as individuals and what they like to do. This is all about extending that life cycle, not just for the vessel, but for the owner as well. So we stay with them, whether they own the boat for 12 months or for 20 years, we hope to be at their side, part of the journey.