Once-in-a-lifetime family adventures

It’s fair to say that Niel Fox, founder of Based on a True Story is an adventurous soul. So when a chance encounter on a round-the-world bike trip through Venezuela led to an introduction to an intrepid superyacht owner, he immediately started dreaming of the potential of these extraordinary vessels. 

“On a superyacht you’ve got the whole world to play with,” says Fox. “I have a background in sailing, including voyages across all the worlds’ oceans, and I could see that a lot of these yachts weren’t really being utilised to their potential and I desperately wanted to try to help people get the most out of them.”

The result was the creation of Based On A True Story – a company that dreams up, builds and manages magical journeys around the world, often incorporating superyachts. 

An international treasure hunt

One of Fox’s first clients owned both a motor yacht and a sailing yacht and wanted to get more out of both. He had a young family and Fox and his team would dream up extravagant odysseys that would take them all over the world. 

“One trip that stands out was totally designed for the kids,” says Fox. “They completely led it, which was very much on brief. The parents just wanted to relax and witness the children having lots of fun.” 

Fox and his team created an epic international treasure hunt adventure for them that started in the Moroccan desert. “The kids found an old treasure map inside of a teapot that we had planted by a roadside stall. That clue led us to fly over the dunes of the Sahara Desert in a hot-air balloon to track down a nomad, then to abruptly leave and fly over to Spain, where they discovered the next clue in the walls of an old castle. The adventure came to its climax as the group sailed into a dramatic pirate festival re-enactment in Soller, Mallorca. After the spectacle, they had to quickly head ashore and dig up treasure from under an ancient olive tree.”  

Word got out about the kinds of extravagant adventures that Fox was building and the client base quickly grew. “As we started to grow as a business, we began to get exposed to some of the largest yachts in the world,” says Fox. “But actually, the size doesn’t matter – ultimately, the view is much the same. It’s more about the opportunity to get to special places that people can’t normally go to and creating experiences in those places.”

Magic and mythological adventure

Another favourite trip of Niel’s was themed around a Scandinavian mythological adventure. “Kids spend too much time on their tablets and phones. And because that world is very technological and defined, they’re losing their imaginations and ability to be creative. The trip was dreamt up to help spark young imaginations.” 

“On the first day, as the kids came out on deck, one of them spotted a mermaid [that we’d planted] sitting on a rock. By the time we’d launched the tenders and got to shore, she’d disappeared, but she’d left an urn behind with a whole host of fascinating trinkets for the journey ahead and a message inside pleading with the children to believe in magic.” 

Over the course of their odyssey, the children encountered more mythological beings and to add to the excitement, the crew and parents had agreed in advance to pretend they couldn’t see any of them. Little wonder the children on board were completely captivated. “Their journey culminated in a huge procession of giants, trolls, elves, fairies and magicians in this great big celebration of magic.”

Education and philanthropy

It’s a million miles from the tired stereotypical vision of superyachts bobbing around in the Riviera, though Fox is more than capable of sprinkling his magic fairy dust on these destinations, too.  

“We planned one cruise on the Riviera where we created a really fun educational journey for the kids over the summer holidays,” says Fox. “They were learning ancient history every day but we’d make it full of surprises to be engaging and interactive. We’d re-enact events, for example in Pompeii, a bunch of Romans in costume suddenly jumped out of the ruins. There was always something wonderful and engaging going on, but the backbone strategy was that the kids were getting an education about the Classics and ancient history.” 

Increasingly, the experiences involve elements of conservation and philanthropy. “On one recent trip, we knew the family had philanthropic interests and would just naturally gravitate towards helping out. In South America, we designed a journey based around bringing alive the story of the Conquistadors and a rumour of a mythological emerald. The clients assumed that the emerald was a material thing, but actually on their last day, after a night of celebrations with a local tribe, it was revealed it to be something living and breathing – a green and flourishing, but imminently threatened part of the Amazon Rainforest.” 

There was an opportunity for the clients to save it and protect this precious piece of land forever – and they did it there and then, saving it forever. “I get goosebumps talking about this,” says Fox. 

And he’s not the only one. Clients can look back on their magical journeys any time they like thanks to a professional photographer who captures the best moments along the way, compiling them in a beautiful hardback book as a keepsake. For children, this often means there’s a new favourite read for bedtimes – all based on a true story.