Corporate Boat Charter on the Oslofjord: Team Events, Client Hospitality, Off-Sites

A private corporate cruise on the Cormate T28 takes up to seven guests. Three hours costs NOK 16,688 including VAT, the four-hour sunset cruise NOK 20,048, six hours NOK 22,288. You are chartering the boat, so three people and seven people pay the same. Catering, printed materials and presentation audio need seven days' notice. Invoices are addressed to the company and VAT-compliant, with the charter and the catering on separate lines.

About a quarter of our bookings are corporate, and most of them are one of three things: a half-day team off-site, an evening cruise with one or two senior clients on board, or the water half of a company day that has a land programme attached to it. Boat and crew are the same in all three. What changes is the length, the food, and how much the captain talks.

Boarding is at Tjuvholmen allé 14, at the western end of Aker Brygge, eight minutes on foot from the tram. The season is May to September. The boat comes out of the water in October and goes back in around April, so a February off-site is not something we can sell you.

What it costs

• Team off-site, 3 hours on the water: NOK 16,688
• Sunset cruise, always 4 hours: NOK 20,048
• Long day with an extended anchor stop, 6 hours: NOK 22,288

Every price is per boat with VAT included, for up to seven guests. Catering comes on top, as does anything printed. Payment is 30 per cent at booking with the balance on the day, or net 7 for established corporate clients. Bank transfer in NOK or EUR, or card with a surcharge.

The boat

The Cormate T28 is 8.4 metres, built in Norway, with a heated cabin, a sliding cabin door, sun beds fore and aft, and an electric flush toilet. The builder's specification has the rest of it. There are power outlets in the cabin for laptops, and music or presentation audio runs from the chart plotter through six speakers. In practice nobody looks at a slide deck while the islands are going past the window.

The layout is why this works for a team of seven. Whoever wants to talk about the quarter sits at the cabin table. Whoever would rather watch the water sits aft on the sun deck. Nobody gets divided into groups or put in front of a room.

A half day, in practice

Depart Tjuvholmen at 14:00, run out through the islands at low speed with as much or as little commentary as the group wants, anchor for an hour in a sheltered bay, cruise back. In July and August that hour at anchor is usually a swim stop. Three hours is long enough for the fjord to do what people booked it for and short enough that the afternoon still ends in daylight, with dinner in town after. The light in late August is the best of the season, and golden hour on the Oslofjord has the timings.

Client hospitality

Two to four senior clients, the account team, an evening departure. The standard shape is 18:00 in summer, the islands at low speed, an anchor stop for dinner on board, alongside again at 21:30. The captain answers questions about the route when asked and otherwise leaves the table alone.

Discretion is the requirement nobody writes into the brief. Captains sign NDAs on request. We do not photograph guests for marketing without asking first, and the drone stays in its case if anyone would rather it did.

Catering

Food comes from restaurant partners at Tjuvholmen. Sjømagasinet is in the same building as our quay, so delivery is a walk down the pontoon. The premium food and drinks package is NOK 800 per person. For a full meal served at anchor we quote per menu, because the price follows the kitchen and the season. Tell us about allergies and preferences at booking and we coordinate the rest.

More than seven

Seven is the limit, and the boat sets it. If the group is larger, send the date and the headcount before you plan anything around it. We check whether a second boat can be arranged for that day and answer yes or no. When it works, two charters leave the same quay, the captains stay in contact by radio, and the group can swap boats at the anchor stop. Two three-hour charters come to NOK 33,376. The second boat needs more notice than a single booking, so allow a couple of weeks.

Above roughly fourteen people this format stops being the right one. We will say so, and point you to an operator with the vessels for it.

What works, and what we talk people out of

What works: a three-hour cruise attached to a working lunch on land at Lille Herbern or Festningen, an evening departure for client hospitality, a sunset cruise to mark the end of a project or the arrival of a new team.

What does not: the working session itself. Four hours of brainstorming on a moving boat goes badly, and the fjord takes the attention the agenda needed. Put the working session on land and the boat after it.

Organised games do not survive the trip either. Seven people in an eight-metre boat is close quarters, and one person trying hard sets the tone for everybody. A slow cruise, a swim stop and food gets you the same result with none of the effort.

Invoicing and VAT

Norwegian VAT is inside the prices above. The charter is passenger transport at 12 per cent and catering sits at the standard 25 per cent, per the Norwegian Tax Administration's rate table. The invoice splits them, with a separate line for any third party such as a photographer. Whether a foreign company can reclaim Norwegian VAT depends on the company; ask your accountant before you budget for it.

Branded materials

The logo does not go on the boat. Vinyl decals on a working hull are impractical and they look worse than nothing. What we can do is napkins and water bottles at the place settings, a printed card on each seat, a centrepiece on the cabin table. We coordinate small print runs with a local supplier at NOK 50 to 150 per guest depending on production.

For something more visible on land, Salt at Langkaia, the event site next to the Opera House, works as the room either side of a cruise. Groups put the reception and the dinner there and the boat in between, and we coordinate the timing with their event team.

Weather and the backup plan

Rain on its own does not stop us. Sustained wind above 12 m/s does, and so does lightning. When the catering is non-refundable and the team's calendar has no slack in it, book a land venue as a fallback. Tjuvholmen has event space within a few minutes of the dock, and we can hold a tentative reservation as insurance. Rain on the Oslofjord has the full criteria.

The companies that get the most out of this are the ones that book the boat and then plan less than they meant to. Three hours on the water, good food, and enough time that people stop looking at the clock. The team comes back to the office the next morning closer than a structured workshop gets them.

Lead time and how to book

Three to seven days' notice in the shoulder season, two weeks in July. A second boat needs a couple of weeks more than that. Last-minute works more often than people expect, particularly in May, in September, and on weekday afternoons.

Corporate bookings go by email rather than through the standard tour widget, because catering, invoicing details and anything printed have to be agreed first. Send the date, the headcount and what the day is for, and you get a quote and a draft itinerary back within one business day. Private versus group boat tours on the Oslofjord covers the wider comparison.

Prices are as of July 2026, VAT included at the rates in force. Catering is quoted per menu and per season, so ask for a current quote. Last reviewed: July 2026.