Time Off: Precious Moments

To Be 'N Sync

The very things Raymond Hill likes about consulting are what draws him to his favorite pastime, rowing.

The profession and the sport both require a tremendous amount of teamwork. "Synchronicity is incredibly important in rowing," says Hill, vice president and global head of A.T. Kearney's pharmaceutical practice. "If you have eight guys rowing, … you're rowing over a distance of maybe eight feet every half second.  If you screw up at all, you will potentially get thrown out of the boat."

There is a need to know your competitors in rowing. Oftentimes, Hill will come up to the line to race and size up the opposition. "They look like these huge guys and you think, 'Oh my God, I'm never going to beat them!' But then, they're all brawn and no finesse."

Hill, 38, who is based in London, grew up in New Jersey and started rowing as a college student attending Cornell University. He rows predominately with two clubs in London, Tideway Scullers and Thames Tradesmen, as well as with one in Connecticut when he travels to the United States.

Hill and his teammates appear to have excelled in both their timing and speed. His Connecticut team has won the U.S. Masters' Nationals three times, and the Tideway Scullers have won the British Nationals twice. Last year, the Scullers came in second in the FISA World Masters' in Hazelwinkel, Belgium.

"The Tradesmen is an interesting club. It was formed 150 years ago when somebody who was a mason, a carpenter, or a bricklayer couldn't get into the London Rowing Club or any of the posh clubs," Hill says. "Since nobody would accept them, they formed their own club. Now, they've broadened to let bankers and a few consultants in."

Having Fun Being Outfoxed

Most of the time Rick Wemmers goes foxhunting, a fox is pursued but not caught — which is fine with him.

"The thrill of foxhunting is in the chase," says Wemmers, the senior partner of the Wemmers Group, a firm in Atlanta that focuses on business development. "You rarely catch them. In the six or seven years I've been hunting, I don't think we've caught more than two."

The sport, whose season runs from October to April, is a great way to get outdoors. Wemmers first starting riding horses 11 years ago, when his wife suggested he take polo lessons. "When they told me I had to stand up on a horse that's 64 inches tall, swing a bamboo stick, and at a gallop hit a ball the size of a fist, I said, 'This will never work,'" he recalls. "But it does, and you learn. It was the greatest thing I've ever done."

However, polo is time-consuming and requires several practice sessions a week. So, Wemmers turned his attention to foxhunting, and he participates in a three-hour hunt every Saturday during the season.

"It's totally consuming," says Wemmers, 59. He is a member of the Shake Rage Hunt Club in North Atlanta, which is one of the oldest foxhunting clubs in the country. "It gives you a great sense of accomplishment to learn to be compatible with a 1,400-pound animal."