A sailing team offsite is roughly €1,500–€1,800 per head for a week, all-inclusive. That number gets nods or nos depending on how you frame it. This is the framing that works — and the parts of it worth keeping honest.
The unit economics you need on one slide
For a team of six: €9,000–€12,000 for the whole boat, captain, food, fuel, marina, and cleaning. Flights for a European team to a Mediterranean hub run €150–€400 per person. One extra day of travel on each end. Total all-in: €11,000–€15,000 for a six-person team for a productive week together.
Compare to the defaults: a classic boutique hotel offsite in Lisbon or Barcelona for six people runs €8,000–€14,000 on rooms + meals + meeting-room rental + airport transfers. The sailing version is in the same band, and you walk out with a team that is noticeably different from one that rotated between a meeting room and a hotel lobby.
The ROI frame your CFO will accept
CFOs do not buy offsites on vibes. They buy on "X euros prevents Y euros of Z." The three Z's that actually work:
- Attrition. One engineer deciding to stay vs leave in the six months after an offsite pays for 10 team offsites. The case for strong team cohesion converting into retention is well-documented; the case against is not.
- Decision velocity. A sprint planning session on deck at sunset with the whole team in the same physical space ships decisions that would take three-to-four weeks of Slack threads otherwise. Count the calendar weeks saved against the euros spent.
- Hiring signal. "Our team does a week together at sea every year" converts candidates. It is a cheap competitive differentiator in the remote-first employer market.
Risk mitigation (what to proactively address)
Four questions will come up. Answer them before they do:
- "What if the internet is bad?" Starlink on board + 4G near shore. Pre-schedule the one or two critical customer calls for anchor-days in a marina if you want zero risk.
- "What if someone gets seasick?" Catamarans are stable, routes are short, we only sail in calm weather. We have had zero trip-ending seasickness events.
- "What about insurance / duty of care?" RYC-partnered charters carry full commercial insurance. Your HR can request a copy of the cover certificate in advance.
- "What if someone cannot make it?" Build in a 30-day reschedule buffer and communicate it to the team at the time of the invitation. Attendance on our team offsites is typically 95%+.
The three-page memo structure
- One paragraph outcome: what is the team going to ship, decide, or unblock by the end of this week? If you cannot answer, stop.
- Cost table (one page): line items, including flights. Compare to the alternative offsite your company already did or would.
- Risk section (half page): the four questions above, each answered in two sentences.
- Timeline: dates, the pre-offsite prep ask (one 45-min call with the agency, one internal kickoff), and what success looks like.
If you want a template — one we have seen approved four times at series-A and series-B startups — email us and we will send the redacted version.