News

Durham sails to success in Business Schools' Regatta

(4 July 2006)

The 15th annual International Business Schools’ Regatta, organised by MBA students at Cranfield School of Management, was won by a crew from Durham Business School.

Durham beat off stiff competition from 17 other crews during the event in the Solent over the weekend of July 3 and 4, 2006. Crews from the UK, Italy, Ireland, Germany and the United States took part in the regatta, one of the most eagerly anticipated, competitively charged events on the business school calendar. After two days of sailing Ashridge were placed second and the University of Bath School of Management third. Portsmouth, home to the British Naval Fleet since 1496 and the UK’s centre of sailing, proved the perfect venue for the competition, which has previously been based from Cowes on the Isle of Wight. A crew reception on the 1860 war ship HMS Warrior launched the weekend’s activities which included racing each day and a formal dinner on the Saturday night – before the crews returned to sleep on board their yachts. The regatta is organised each year by current full-time MBA (Master of Business Administration) students from Cranfield School of Management and the crews competing are all current or past MBA students from leading business schools across the world. The competitive nature and intensity of yacht racing is renowned for testing leadership and teamwork to the limit. The development of these skills is also a fundamental aspect of high-quality MBA programmes, thus the regatta provides an opportunity for teams to put into practice some of the leadership and organisational skills acquired whilst studying. Michael Bannon, co-ordinator of this year’s regatta said: “This year’s regatta has been a fantastic event. Our emphasis on delivering a balanced programme of sailing and socialising has worked very well and I was personally very impressed with the strong level of mutual support that was evident between all the crews. We look forward to building the event next year.” The winner's prize, the Laurie Brown Trophy, was presented to the Durham team by Cranfield School of Management’s Director, Professor Michael Osbaldeston. The trophy was established in 1999 after the late Laurie Brown, a keen sailor from IBM, who left sponsorship for the award upon his death. Each crew of eight sailed one of a fleet of matched SunFast 37s and included a skipper and first mate qualified to RYA Day Skipper standard with a minimum of 100 miles racing experience. The eighteen crews competing were from Ashridge, Bath, Bradford School of Management, Columbia Business School (US), Cranfield School of Management (eight crews), HLL Leipzig Graduate School of Management (Germany), London Business School, Michael Smurfit School of Business (Ireland), SDA Bocconi (Italy) and University of Exeter School of Business and Economics.