Fractional Advisory for
Private Sailing Clubs
Below
Advisory
Below before beyond · Oyster Bay, New York
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Fractional Advisory for
Private Sailing Clubs
Below before beyond · Oyster Bay, New York
What We Believe
Most clubs already have the answer. It lives in the muscle memory of a coach who has run your junior program for eleven summers. In the junior sailor who stopped showing up in August and never said why. In the conversation that doesn't happen at your board meetings because nobody has made it safe to have.
We built this practice on one belief — that the most important things about your club are already there. The expertise, the history, the potential. It simply needs someone willing to go all the way down before taking a single step forward.
The only way to find what is true about your club is to go there first. That is where every engagement begins.
The Who
When there is no waterfront director and the season will not wait. When the board needs an outside perspective before making a decision that will define the next three years. When a new committee chair or commodore steps into a role with no map and no margin for error.
When a regatta chair needs more than enthusiasm — they need someone who has managed the logistics, the safety plans, the Notice of Race, the volunteers, the scoring, and the post-race dinner, and knows exactly where things fall apart.
When a junior program is losing kids and nobody can explain why. When a sailing director is gifted on the water and overwhelmed off it. When a challenge arrives that sits outside everything your current staff was hired to do. When a board needs a second opinion from someone who has sat in that room before and has no agenda other than the health of the club.
You do not need a full-time hire for any of these moments. You need fractional advisory — deep expertise, deployed exactly when and where it matters, for exactly as long as it needs to be.
Below Advisory was built for these moments.
The Why
Before strategy.
Before planning.
Before a single recommendation.
There is a particular kind of knowledge that lives only at the water's edge. It doesn't appear in board reports or member surveys. It is the knowledge of the dock at six in the morning. The knowledge of a junior coach watching a twelve-year-old rig a boat for the last time without anyone noticing.
"Every answer you need already exists inside your club. We just know where to look."
We are a fractional consulting practice built exclusively for private sailing clubs and waterfront organizations. We don't consult from a distance. We come to your club. We sit with your board. We stand on your dock. We watch your coaches teach.
We bring decades of waterfront experience, club operations, sailing program development, event management, and organizational strategy to every engagement. We have run the programs you are trying to build. We have managed the budgets you are trying to balance.
The Work
Six dimensions. One integrated practice.
01
A junior program losing twelve-year-olds after their second summer. Nobody knew why. Three conversations with coaches and four with kids told us everything the board report missed. Retention, curriculum, coaching quality — the whole pipeline rebuilt.
02
Boards need a thought partner who speaks both the language of the water and the boardroom. We sit with your leadership team to navigate membership growth, capital priorities, and long-range vision.
03
From the Notice of Race to the closing dinner. We have run world-class regattas. We know the difference between an event that happens and one that matters.
04
Safety protocols, staffing models, dock management, equipment maintenance. Most clubs run their waterfront on institutional memory. We document, systematize, and professionalize without losing the soul of what makes your waterfront yours.
05
Your coaches are your program. They are the reason kids come back — or don't. Teaching methodology, on-water technique, safety protocols, and the leadership development that turns good instructors into coaches who shape sailors for life.
06
The post-race meal is not an afterthought — it is the lasting impression. Menu design, vendor selection, service flow, and the intentional hospitality that turns a regatta into a destination sailors plan their summers around.
The How
Before we offer a single recommendation we spend time understanding what is actually true about your club. Not what the board report says. What is actually, specifically, granularly true.
Below the Surface Assessment
A deep immersion into the living organism of your club. Conversations, observation, patient listening. Not a checklist. Diagnosis.
Strategy Built on Truth
Strategy built on what is actually true works. Programs designed around what your specific sailors need to retain kids year after year.
Structured Around Your Calendar
We work around the sailing calendar. The most important work happens in the coldest months — when the real conversations begin.
Deep, Not Broad
We work with a small number of clients at any one time. Presence, trust, genuine investment. This is the practice.
"If you are looking for a partner who will go all the way down with you before taking a single step forward — let's talk."
The World We Work In
Oyster Bay · Race Week
ILCA Fleet · Ready to Launch
Race Management · On Course
Junior Program · Pre-Race
Long Island Sound · The Future
Junior Program · On The Water
Oyster Bay Harbor · Every Season
On The Water · Always
The Creature
Founder, Below Advisory
I have stood on the dock at six in the morning and understood exactly what a healthy program feels like — and what a struggling one does too. That is not something you learn in a classroom. It is something you earn on the water.
As General Manager of a prominent yacht club on Oyster Bay — one of the great sailing harbors on the Long Island Sound — I managed every dimension of club life. I have organized world-class regattas that brought international fleets to these waters. I hold an MBA. I live in Oyster Bay. I am not a consultant who visits the sailing world. I am from it.
Below Advisory was built on the conviction that the sailing clubs of the Northeast deserve strategic partnership that has never been formally offered to them. The first of its kind. Built from the inside out.
Club General Management — Oyster Bay, Long Island Sound
Regional, National & International Championships — Host Club & Regatta Direction
Junior Sailing Program Development — ILCA, Opti, Club 420, Sonars, Foiling, Recreational, Learn to Sail, Racing
MBA — Strategic Management & Organizational Development
Waterfront Ops · F&B · Events · Coach Development
Speaking at the US Sailing Annual Conference
In Their Words
"Tomas is organized, creative, and incredibly hard working. In recent years I have been impressed with his analytic skills and seen him demonstrate great capability with some very high-level work. He is an absolute pleasure to work with."
"Tomas is one of the most dedicated and effective General Managers I have worked with in my almost 20-year career in hospitality. His ability to balance operational efficiency with a personal touch made a lasting positive impact on both staff and members alike."
"Having completed graduate work in business administration, Tomas brings a level of insight into his general manager role that is unparalleled by most of his colleagues. He is personable, loyal, and reliable — someone who is also one of the most collaborative coaches I have ever worked with."
"His coaching not only helped me become a youth world champion but shaped me as a person. His dedication, consistency, and creativity are unparalleled. In 2019 and 2021, despite having a well-established career in Argentina, I chose to work with Tomas again in the United States to continue benefiting from his knowledge. Without a doubt, I would do it again."
His name is Philippe.
Every child who walks onto one of your docks carries the same possibility. The question is not whether your club can survive another season. The question is whether it will still exist — still matter, still inspire — when Philippe is old enough to step into a boat.
That is what we protect.
That is why Below Advisory exists.
Let's Go Below
Not a pitch. Not a proposal. A real conversation about your club, your season, your people, and what you're trying to build.
We work on retainer, by project, and by hourly engagement — structured around your season and your needs.
We respond to every inquiry within 72 hours.
We work with a small number of clients. Every conversation is held in confidence.