On 1/3/13 we launched our LTD Sailing – “Living The Dream!” website – the beginning of our business as an ASA sailing school in the Caribbean. 1/3/13 though? Isn’t that bad luck?
We started out in St. Vincent partnering with Sunsail & Moorings. We got our business license, set up our office and got certified as an ASA affiliate school. No easy task as we had to pay for an evaluator to come down to see if we were legit or not. Everything was set.
Chris taught the first LTD sailing class while Chrystal was still in the states. Bookings were coming in and we started feeling like this was really going to happen. We started our own business on a small Caribbean island! Who does that? Then Sunsail & Moorings was sold and the new owners decided that a charter base in St. Lucia & Grenada was good enough. The base in St. Vincent closed.
Yikes! What now? Chrystal had just sold her house, quit her job and booked her ticket to St. Vincent. There were lots of long distance phone calls during that time. But it was that one local call that changed everything. The base manager came to our rescue and helped us start over in Grenada.
Turns out, Grenada is a pretty friendly business environment and we were all set in no time. We lived and worked
That Fall, at the Annapolis Boat Show we ran into Phil Berman, president of The Multihull Company. He asked us if we wanted to be yacht brokers in Grenada and he would help us get started. We realized that a lot of our students wanted to buy boats and we were unable to find any full-time brokers in Grenada. Easy decision!
We moved into an office in Port Louis. But it wasn’t long before that office was too small so we relocated to Secret Harbor where we are today. We have a huge office with storage, a little kitchen, shower, bathroom and our own dock. It is an absolutely stunning location!
You never know what the future might bring. Just never look down, never look back, only look forward to where you want to go. We’re still here – cheers!
We would like to thank Boris Pavlovic for believing in us by writing our first business plan; Mary Lynn from 9Cloud for helping us out even before we were LTD, Simon for working miracles, Ryan Hellpap for picking us up when we are feeling beaten down; our families for understanding, our awesome instructors who are the best in the industry and of course, our students who trust us enough to help them start “Living The Dream!”
Read more about Chris & Chrystal of LTD Sailing – “Living The Dream!” Pg 40
