You might surmise that chartering a glamorous motorboat to impress your clients would be impractical this year but, according to an eclectic list of current charterers, the cost-effective allure of living life on the water’s edge makes good business sense for those with business to make and clients to keep.

A fine vessel for a day cruise, at a fine price.

Trying to find great value on a corporate entertainment budget slashed by half can leave your head feeling nothing but a dull thud. Individual hospitality prices for Wimbledon’s centre court start from £899, Ashes cricket at Lord’s from £279; even two hours in an executive box at a Queen’s Park Rangers football club home match costs £170. Most corporate hospitality seems designed for a more prosperous and profligate age.

But don’t despair; there is still at least one headache-easing bargain around. Look towards the south-coast of England to find Seafin – a classic English motorboat – cruising into Port Hamble, near Southampton, and waving a flag for serious business fun on a modest budget. A perfect day out in a delightful setting costs less than £100 a head.

Triangle Marine has been offering hospitality days aboard its elegant, 75-foot motor yacht for more than 20 years, and Reed Business Information has chartered Seafin several times annually since 1989.

“We used to take our advertisers to Henley, Wimbledon and Test match cricket, but once we analysed the costs we found they were amazingly high compared to Seafin,” says Mike White, Reed’s client services director for two decades until 2008. So, instead of paying two or three times as much, he booked the vessel up to ten times a year to reward the top advertisers of Reed’s diverse magazine portfolio. “It’s one of the most cost-effective ways of entertaining clients and being able to discuss our business with them informally,” adds White. “People are very disappointed if they aren’t invited.”

Seafin is equipped – and licensed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency – to carry thirty passengers around the Solent, which makes it suitable for any company keen on generating and maintaining business during choppy financial waters.

Charter rates for 2009 start at £2,500 for a whole day onboard, with thirty of your most valued customers wined and dined by Seafin’s diligent crew. The set up allows you plenty of one-on-one time with all your guests on a sunny top deck, on land by the quaint village pub at the picturesque Buckler’s Hard, and on the water – courtesy of the on-board jet-skis.

“We booked a year in advance and I certainly don’t regret it now the recession has arrived,” says Ben Rayner, general manager at communications agency, CHS Creative. “Some of our clients survived the previous recession and realise that if they do nothing, they achieve nothing. If you don’t do marketing you get less business and we’re aware that there will always be someone around the corner to snap up ours.”

He says the day includes plenty of fun activities for all age groups. “Seafin allows us to bomb around on a fast motorboat on the Solent and to use hired jet RIBs to let our clients get to a nearby island if they wish to go shopping.”

But how does the vessel compare with others available for hire? “We’ve chartered other boats and they haven’t delivered as much, so we returned to Seafin,” adds Rayner. “We struggled to find any other boat that gives us what we want. Right down to constantly filling people’s glasses with Pimms and feeding them all day, Seafin does things the way they should be done.”

David Blackburn, director of HR & business support at Shepherds Bush Housing Group (SBHG), echoes those views. “When people climb aboard for the first time, you can see their absolute joy and wonderment that they’re on a great big motor cruiser where people are serving them free drinks.”

Unlike the Bank of England, Seafin doesn’t print her own money, but it’s clearly a venue with an atmosphere conducive to big business deals. Indeed, apart from the sparkling service and beautiful destinations – “Buckler’s Hard is a wonderful place to visit in its own right,” says Blackburn – it’s the business brokered on board that keeps clients re-booking year after year. “Once aboard, there is a huge amount of cross fertilisation and business brokered.”

Warwick Bergin, a director of Triangle Marine, which bought the yacht in 1986, says: “Our regular clients know there is no better place to enjoy a Pimms, swim or jet-ski than when cruising onboard Seafin in the summer sun. Because we do much more business than other boats – and half of our catering is done in-house – the economies of scale allow us to bring the price right down.

“We tend to get the train down with our clients, spend the day on Seafin and head back together on the train. It’s literally a 12-hour bonding session.”

Apart from affordability, great service and fun, Seafin travels to “some very characterful places” according to David Norman, a director at financial services company, Davon Ltd. “There’s a choice of Buckler’s Hard on Beaulieu River, or Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight in the morning, before anchoring down to set the jet-skis free in the afternoon,” says Norman. For five consecutive years, he has rewarded his clients with a trip on what he calls “a classic gentleman’s yacht with wonderfully varnished timber”.

George Deedes, classified national sales manager at the Daily Mail newspaper, books Seafin because its intimate environment compares favourably with other opportunities to thank clients. It offers “the chance to get up close and personal with invited guests”, compared with the superficial greetings afforded by large drinks parties for 150 people, and a River Thames boat he used to hire for 70 people.

“It’s nice to operate in a fairly large group in an environment that’s still small enough to enable us to give everyone personal attention,” says Deedes, grandson of the legendary journalist WF Deedes. “We only got three hours on the Thames boat compared with an entire day on Seafin. We tend to get the train down with our clients too, spend the best part of the day onboard and merrily head back together on the train. It’s literally a twelve-hour bonding session. u

“The vessel is beautifully looked after and was recently refurbished, so it’s perfect for entertaining,” he adds. “Let’s face it, there’s no greater environment to get to know someone than sitting on a boat, soaking up the sun with a beer in hand.”

Seafin has three levels on which to sup that beer. The top deck fits thirty people, the middle deck is designed for comfort, with an open gallery to eat food, and the lower deck houses four cabins with power showers to help guests warm up after riding the jet-skis.”

Alex Widdicombe, Seafin’s operations manager, says: “I’ve worked on private jets that are cramped but Seafin is roomy with plenty of space. Our guests have the full run of the boat and can find somewhere to relax by sitting on deck outside or reading a magazine on the comfy sofas inside – and there is enough indoor space for everyone if it rains.” Guests who want to take the wheel can do that too, with supervision from the skipper Fred, who, with more than thirty years’ experience, takes any little hiccup in his stride.

Chartering Seafin also means that you can pass off every inch of the vessel as your own to impress deserving and disparate clients. “We encourage our clients to welcome their guests with their own banners and flags. We help to create the illusion that our boat is theirs on any particular day,” says Widdicombe – very useful for maximising television exposure during Cowes Week.

“We need a vessel for spectator purposes. Seafin has a fantastic viewing platform … and is fast enough to follow the yachts around.”

Cowes Week is very popular with those with a nautical bent or who simply want to make the biggest impact. “As we’re based on the south coast and not tucked up in London, Cowes is an apt day out for us,” says Rayner. “We book then because the regatta has boats zipping down the harbour, which creates a great deal of excitement.”

The boat also makes for a fabulous viewing gallery. “She is very comfortable, with lots of areas to watch the passing races,” says Widdicombe. “We need a vessel that is good for spectator purposes,” adds Simon Boulding, marketing director at Britannia Corporate Events, which runs its own corporate sailing regattas.

Cowes Week is a very popular charter period for Seafin.

“Seafin looks the part and has a fantastic viewing platform,” he says. “At 11 knots, she is fast enough to follow the yachts around and provide our clients with quality, close up views of the racing at the start and finish lines. A very small number of vessels can do this and Seafin has a good reputation.”

For Norman, the appeal of booking Seafin lies in its financial transparency. “With other corporate hospitality, it can be quite hard to quantify what the total cost will be – and you have to make certain arrangements yourself,” he says. “But Seafin offers the complete package and it’s very easy to arrange.”

“In the current climate, some entertaining budgets have literally been halved,” says Deedes. “On Seafin, you can entertain a decent amount of people for a very extended period of time, in favourable conditions. It helps us to build a great impression and relationship with our biggest clients, many of which spend in excess of a million pounds in advertising.”

For all that, he says, “£2,500 is bloody good value.”

For more information contact Triangle Marine.