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Great people, great places, great boats!

Overview - Give us a summary of your time with Sunsail?

Outstanding! From booking the holiday with UK based staff through to the quality of the boats and most of all the staff in country. We had a wonderful time when we did the Turgutreis Flotilla back in June. The lead crew were absolutely brilliant. Paddy gets it just right - clients know that he is there to help and certainly knows his stuff but he doesn't intrude. A very difficult balance which he pulls off really well. Kat (Host) is just so nice! But no pushover with the local restaurant owners, she was always very attentive to customers and worked really hard to pull it all together. Phil (Engineer), again just so help full nothing is ever too much trouble.Each time we got onto a berth he would pop and ask if there was anything that needed fixing and would no doubt be back in the morning. Thing is we only gave him a few little jobs as he, and other engineers I’m sure, ensure that the boats are kept in good order all the time. But that's not just our view. At the end of the 2 weeks, when we got together for the meal, every single customer without exception agreed that this was the best lead crew that they had sailed with. That is a lot of lead crews when you think about all the flotilla holidays all those customers had been on previously! Hence truly outstanding! So why not the Trip of a lifetime, only because, whilst Turkey was really nice and the sailing was great, I do hope that we sail in more exotic locations in the world at some point in our lifetime..

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Coming back to Paddy then (and others on the crew)....he sets the standard and tone for the whole thing! And, as I say he gets it just right. Even on free sail days, the first point he makes is 'this is not a day off for the lead crew' he goes to great lengths to make sure customer comes first. So here's a thought, costs & time permitting, Sunsail could get real benefit from having Paddy share his methods and approach with other Sunsail staff. This could be done either as a 1 day flotilla where other staff are given the Paddy treatment as if they were a customer or simply somebody sitting down with Paddy and capturing his ideas to share with other lead crews around the world. If you got this right then I'm sure others could build on it and you could share best practice around the company ensuring a better and more consistent quality holiday.

Yachts - What was the best thing about your yacht?

It was clean, very well equipped and everything worked!

Tips - Do you have any advice for fellow Sunsail guests visiting this destination?

Keep a list running of things to pack, just little things that make your life a bit easier on the boat. We have been doing this for around 6 years now so the list works quite well. This year I added strap on sandals - great when you need to take a line ashore!

Highlights - What were the most memorable experiences of your holiday and where on your itinerary did they happen?

Free sail day, spending a night on anchor in a beautiful bay close to Yali (see picture attached). It was blowing quite hard so we stayed up on deck until it calmed in the early hours. Of course we were had a few texts from Paddy just making sure we were ok and the offer come meet them in Bodrum if we were unhappy.

Darren Johnston, 06/01/2010