Think Green finalist: Key Sailing

Thinking green is something that comes naturally to Janet Hamel Solomon, owner of Key Sailing. Day after day, she finds herself out on the water, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Solomon believes that she is really in the business of giving people the opportunity to enjoy “fresh air, fine chocolates and a few hours of peace on Earth.”

Although being on the water, surrounded by nature, is a green business in itself, Solomon has promoted the idea of green living through educational lectures and other public-speaking opportunities. She also recently wrote a book called, “Sailing Home —You CAN Go Home Again.” Solomon says that this personal narrative incorporates a lot of the green practices. Solomon also noted that since 2007 she and her husband, Tim, have had more than 12,000 guests.

“We haven’t invented a green widget to change the world; we believe you can change the world through the way you live,” says Solomon.

The winner of last year’s Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, Solomon is a Sarasota native who grew up being known as the daughter of Sarasota symphony violinist Jean Hamel and Chaplain J.D. Hamel.

Solomon learned how to sail at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron when she was a teenager dating her childhood sweetheart, Tim. The two not only fell in love with one another but with being out on the water.
After sailing to 30 countries on six continents with Tim, a U.S. Coast Guard master captain, the couple decided in 1999 to come back home. In 2007, they bought their boat, Key Breeze, and since 2007 have been running their business, Key Sailing, from a dock slip at Marina Jack. Trip Advisor has rated Solomon’s sailing trips the No. 1 tourist attraction in Sarasota for three years with more than 120 five-star reviews. In those reviews people rave about their “experience of a life time” and what a “wonderful adventure” they had while out on the water.

Solomon’s boat, Key Breeze, is a 41-foot Morgan Classic II charter yacht that can hold up to 12 passengers, though she limits the group to six when couples want to have an intimate and romantic evening aboard her boat. Fifty percent of her customers have become repeat customers.

Solomon feels that in the 38 years that she has been sailing, she has gained some insight not only on sailing but also on how important it is to live and think “green.”

“Green is not something you do, green is someone you are,” she says. “You can’t live an international life without thinking green. That’s when you realize you only have one planet to play with.”

AT A GLANCE

Address: P.O. Box 51173 Sarasota

Start date: 2007

Number of employees when started: Two

Number of employees now: Two

Advice: “Give faith a fight chance, work 24/7 and cherish every moment,” says Janel Hamel Solomon, owner of Key Sailing.

Biggest challenge: “The weather. We can provide a perfect sail everyday if God provides perfect weather everyday.”

Best place to go for a power lunch: “The Key Breeze with a picnic basket!”

First day on the job: “Job? What job? I don’t have a job!”

If you could have any other job for the day, what would you do? “I would sail the Key Breeze with my childhood sweetheart across from a bayfront park named after my father in Sarasota. I’m doing it! I’m 53 years old, if there was something else I’d want to do, I’d better be doing it now.”

Who is your business hero? “My parents taught me to live, not just to breathe in and out, and they lived to make a difference. They are my business heroes because their business was changing the world. You didn’t just get a job at our house — you grew up to change the world. They were people of deep faith.”

What have you had to do differently in this business climate? "We are much busier. We actually have a longer waiting list every year because we offer affordable, private and personalized group charters in a world where people need to eat chocolate on a sailboat.”

What is one advantage of having your business in Sarasota? “This is my backyard. I’ve lived here since 1960. I’m sailing in my backyard. This water is my backyard and I am home. I am home.”

Contact Rachel S. O'Hara at [email protected].