This is the sixth entry in a series of blogs by Dell Ambassadors competing in the Clipper Race, a 40,000 nautical mile race around the world in 70-foot racing yachts. You can find the first post from Marek Omilian, and the posts from Samantha Harper on Direct2Dell. For more background on Dell’s involvement, read our initial blog about this exciting race here.
Oh, what a Race Leg 4 for Visit Seattle!
Australia has been great to us and we enjoyed it very much. The iconic Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race was very special. Unforgettable experience, racing not just the Clipper Race fleet, but 100 other boats. Fremantle, Sydney, Hobart, Airlie Beach have been outstanding stopover locations.
I haven’t done the exact math, but we scored more than half of our 60 total points during the three races around Australia. This included a second place in Fremantle to Sydney and the win in Hobart to Airlie Beach races.
On top of that, we have always been near the top of the fleet, adding points in the scoring gates and ocean sprint. I feel as we have found the winning approach. It took time, hard work, lots of sweat and tears (no kidding!), trial and error, learning and persevering. It’s like building anything – tangible (such as Dell Rugged) or intangible (such as an organization).
There has been a lot of give and take by the crew members, everyone making their adjustments of goals and attitude towards others. All of this hard work has really not been about sailing. Of course, we are better sailors than when we left Liverpool six month ago, but so are all of the other crews on the ten other Clipper Race boats.
It has mostly been about building a strong team culture based on core values everyone lives by. Some follow the core values right away, others need some time to internalize them and adjust by watching the rest living by them. It helps greatly to have a leader or leaders setting examples for others.
I enjoyed being part of the learning and building process. It’s been one of the lessons I hoped to learn during the Clipper Race. Building organizational culture based on values is fully portable to anything I will do for the rest of my life.
About Marek Omilian, crew member, Visit Seattle
Marek Omilian, 53 from Seattle, USA, is undertaking the full 40,000 nautical mile circumnavigation on board Visit Seattle. The father of two grew up sailing centre-board boats in the Sea Scouts in his native Poland, and after immigrating to the USA in his twenties, he began sailing keelboats and has been racing in the Puget Sound since 2015.
Being a Dell Ambassador was a natural fit for Omilian, who has a computing and analyst background and runs his own valuation and management consultant firm. Other than the pride of arriving in his home port of Seattle, Omilian is hoping his Clipper Race experience will challenge him both physically and mentally, and create life-long friendships with his teammates. And, of course, result in winning the coveted Clipper Race Trophy.
