Today we meet Rich Stevens, founder of Jersey Seafaris.
Rich tells Channel Eye about how it all started: “Seafaris started ten years ago. It started off as a bit of a hobby really, before turning something I love into a job.
We go to so many different destinations, they’re all absolutely brilliant, but they’re completely different. Whether it’s France for dinner, out to the Écréhous, or the Minquiers and swimming on sandbanks to just a blast along the North Coast exploring some of the incredible caves, it’s all so different, unique, it’s an amazing, amazing job.
Seafaris has evolved over the years and it’s now our tenth season operating. We started as pretty-much a one-man business, one boat, now we’ve got three boats, we’ve got a our headquarters at the Saint Catherine’s breakwater.
We’ve also got The Three Arches shop on St Catherine’s breakwater and we’re employing up-to twenty people in the summer. The Three Arches opened last year at the breakwater and with Covid, it was a soft opening really, whereas this year we’ve got big plans. We think it’s just the most unique iconic location on the Island, a great spot for doing some one-off events. It’s really exciting and good fun to have something new to get your teeth into.
Seafaris collaborate with a wide range of local businesses, whether it’s one of the seaside restaurants, taking people around to Portelet for dinner or going out to a random little quiet beach with Chris from Goodstone to do a barbecue. Love Wine provide drinks packages for us – collaboration is a key approach for our business as it allows us to pick the best for our clients.
We have three boats with Seafaris, two twelve-seater ribs and a nine-seater rib which is more of a luxury boat. They’re all made by Rib Quest in Devon and they are well built boats.
The thing I love the most about Jersey I guess is the massive tides, which makes an Island which is pretty small, nine by five, but on a big low tide it’s double the size.
There’s different spots that unveil on different tides, which makes it seem like a much bigger Island than it actually is, allowing it to pack a bit of a punch.
Outside of work in the summer you’ll probably find me doing similar things, jumping on a boat or a paddle board. Usually involving the sea, maybe going for a surf, but loving the water around Jersey’s coastline.
Future plans with Seafaris is striving to continue to be the best, putting on the best trips, the best charters, making people happy. We love what we do and we just want to continue doing that. Having a great job, taking people out, having fun.
To slot into the team at Seafaris, I’d say the the most important asset to have is a good personality. We’re a pretty loud, boisterous bunch and just the ability to speak, get on well with the team and with our clients as well.
Three items that I would most need on a day trip to the Miniquiers are sun cream, a camera in case something cool happened and a pair of ‘budgie smugglers’!
Fashion and Seafaris has always been a thing that comes together nicely, I think that soon we could probably take on the Milan Catwalks, and I see ourselves more going into fashion than boats in probably close to six months.
They call me Sledgehammer, but where does it come from? It comes from my Stag-do actually. There was a dog called Sledge and now it’s somehow come back into Seafaris – Sledgehammer is a good nickname I like it!
You can find out more about Seafaris their website here.
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