Anchors Aweigh! Graphic Designer Leads Guided Sailing Tours
A graphic designer packs his bags to see the world, then stumbles into a new line of work leading guided sailing tours for young professionals in Croatia.
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“Patience is key. Short-term pain equals long-term gain.”
Approaching his 30th birthday, Australian graphic designer Chris Tabone — an established designer for nearly ten years — decided to take a year off to travel the world. But after nine months of hostels and banana pancakes, money was running low. Not ready to end the adventure, he applied for a tour-guide position and got it. It paid just $78 a day, but meals and accommodations were covered, and he'd get to travel Europe for free.
He stayed in the role for years, learning the industry. Over time, his 20-something passengers kept asking what tours he'd recommend when they returned a few years older. They were aging out of youth accommodations but didn't want a traditional cruise. Chris spotted a gap: young professionals in their late 20s to late 30s weren't being served by the guided-tour industry.
The next off-season, back home in Melbourne, he put pen to paper and decided to sell sailing tours in Croatia — a Mediterranean trip that fit his demographic. Using his design background, he built a website, set up social accounts, and messaged his old passengers on Facebook, convincing 40 of them to trust him and his new company, Koda Sail. His first tour filled, mostly with the late-20s-to-30s crowd he was after.
The launch wasn't without disaster. He'd been using PayPal to collect deposits for six months when, six weeks before the first tour, they froze his account without warning — the influx of payments had been flagged as possible money laundering. Without the funds he couldn't pay the $33,000 boat bill, and there was no time for a bank loan. Family and friends came through with a personal loan, saving the first tour. He's used a different payment system ever since.
From there, Chris took detailed notes and improved every year — securing a better boat, then expanding. Koda Sail now runs multiple boats through the summer at $1,200 to $1,500 per person and grosses just under $300,000 a year, with word of mouth as his number-one marketing tool. He and his co-founder still work day jobs, hiring guides to scale.
His advice for marketing a higher-priced experience: have real faith in your product's worth. Chris believes his customers get the best experience available, so he over-delivers and hasn't struggled to fill tours. And more broadly: be patient. "Short-term pain equals long-term gain." He plans to add a new destination every year — full steam ahead.
