The 32 staff at Dataexplorers took a day off from advising hedge funds on stock borrowing positions to go yachting off the South of France last Friday.

Mark Faulkener, the managing director, split the firm in two to sail from Cannes to St Tropez and back. The original plan to set the Edinburgh office against London had to be scuppered when it turned out Edinburgh was comprised almost entirely of landlubbers.