“Is buying the boat an irrational act? Who cares!”

Buying a sailboat is, by definition, an irrational act. As the British say, sailing “is staying dressed in a cold shower by tearing up 50-pound bills.”

I decided to buy the boat and now I am happy

Some time ago we asked ourselves: what drives so many enthusiasts to take the plunge, often against family advice, not giving a damn about budget constraints? So we thought we would turn directly to the sailors, in the various social communities dedicated to sailing.

We got so many testimonies: there were those who sent me just a sentence, those who wrote a “novel.” Below you will find the ones that impressed us the most. These are all stories of extraordinary passion, which we gladly repost.

We need stories like these: send us your testimonies to speciali@panamaeditore.it! We will publish the best ones! And if you want to do more–attach a photo of you aboard your boat!

Armorer–thanks to an unexpectedly successful book (Massimiliano Gatti)

I am among those who “screwed up” together with two friends. First we had a Jez27: 4 years of joys. He was the legendary thoroughbred birdie, winner of Roma by 2 in the 1990s. Now having had the right experience we have switched to a Canados 33, a marvel.

Against everything and everyone–economical problems, logistical problems, time problems, family opposition…. But for 7 years there has been joyful sailing. And time has proven us right. An elegant 39-year-old girl who sails well!

Do you want to know how I was able to afford my share of the Canados? I wrote my story in a book (“I Can’t Swim: Story Of A Half Sailor“), just to share it, two years ago. Who knew I would sell more than 4,000 copies! With the proceeds, I bought the boat! It was an immense joy, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Just think that at the presentation, which took place at the LNI in Ostia, Matteo Miceli, Tullio Picciolini, Oscar Campagnola and Carlo Auriemma came as a surprise! I raised more than 20,000 euros without a publisher. It was in my destiny, at this point I like to see it that way.

I spend everything on her (Guido Pasolini)

I am a 29-year-old guy, a lifelong sailing enthusiast and racer since childhood.
I bought the Querida 2 (a Vismara 40, a boat that won a lot of regattas in the years 97-2000) years ago and let’s say that everything I earn I spend on her, to restore her to her original splendor. And as soon as I can I go out with friends and go on vacation there.

You know when you see a boat and you say it’s her !!! You are aware of all the problems and inconveniences she may have, but you don’t care. Everyone tells you leave it alone it is an unsellable boat, uncomfortable missing a lot of things to go on vacation etc. etc. And you caught up in complete irrationality buy it.

Like a Love Story (Frankie GP)

I have had the boat for 14 years and there has not been a day that I have not been happy with my purchase, not even those days when fatigue and bad weather wear you down deep inside!!! It is obvious that it is an expensive thing, that it is a huge financial and time commitment, but if it is the passion that animates you there will be no euro spent better repaid! It’s like a love affair..if when you start you are not crazy enough to think it will last forever and be forever wonderful what do you start it for!!! So: it is worth buying it. Not for the pockets but for the soul..which is undoubtedly worth more.

Three Hearts and a Meteor (Dino Lucci)

Our buying experience is modest but full of satisfaction, we bought a Meteor in 3 friends, just over 1000 euros each and a few hundred annual management.

Eight years ago, holding it in Luino on Lake Maggiore where about 20 Meteors participated in the winter championship at that time. I had been doing Tigullio and Punta ala winter for years and discovered a fun I had never experienced. We were in our 30s and regretted not doing it sooner!

You look out from the cabin and you are at the sea (Alberto Moricoli)

On why it is worth buying it wins out more how much you are willing to do to keep it, given the costs incurred. Sacrifices that affect economically, but at the same time give satisfaction. I have half moved there: the beauty of experiencing it year-round is simply getting out of the cabin looking out and being at the sea. It is a good morning!

Galeotti were my 50 years (Franco Tuzzato)

I have always had boats, albeit motor boats, from a young age, then switched to sailing with several years devoted to various courses to perfect technique and then racing. After many years and because of personal reasons due to a separation I moved away from sailing for good, extinguishing any possibility of practicing it but obviously and obviously not extinguishing the passion within.

For my 50th birthday and especially thanks to my new partner we decided on the purchase of a small sailboat, our first boat together. We began the search, and in the end the choice had fallen on 2 boats a decidedly dated and neglected 1976 Dehler 25 and a decidedly newer and almost flawless Hunter 26 with prices not far apart.

When we saw the Dehler with its old line, the very old Volvo Penta running quietly, the sails thick and dirty, when we entered the small square with the mess of objects everywhere and the too much sand that had penetrated everywhere and still no one had cleaned it (maybe for a few years)….it was love at first sight, there was something lived and history in that little boat that really struck us, it had a life, it needed telling and a rebirth like I had.

It was anything but a rational purchase, no even minimal element could have the justification of a sound and reasoned purchase, from the price compared to the Hunter to the condition of the sails and the age of the engine, from the uncomfortableness of the interior to the condition of the deck; it was “ONLY” an emotional, sanguine purchase, indeed, a birthday gift that allowed me to re-discover my passion for the sea and for sailing, to re-discover myself, an event whose significance went beyond the simple private writing of purchase and sale demonstrating that the purchase of a sailboat is not only the rational and perfect purchase of an object but an investment, small or large, for the quality of life and that in most cases it is emotionality and therefore for the most part irrationality.

Five years later we have changed boats to pursue another small desire,the current Zuanelli, but oftentimes I regard with pleasure and almost with necessity the photos of that great old little boat purchased against all rational rules.

The boat that… was meant to be (Luisa Monticelli)

For my “baby” I risked divorce, gambled away my husband’s parents’ inheritance, friends said it was a stud, that it didn’t perform, that, even used, it cost a bundle but…. It was love at first sight that lasts to this day. We haven’t divorced, as soon as I can I also go there alone, and when I have to leave her I get tears.

Now she is 21 years old, she costs us like a flesh-and-blood daughter but … as a daughter we are so jealous of her. If I think about it, I know I could have afforded clothes, trips, dinners at restaurants instead of jumping through hoops for operating expenses and extras, but do you want to put even the satisfaction of handing over the helm to my grandchildren and seeing them swoon? Priceless!

The story of the purchase was peculiar: summer 2007 we were doing home-port-home, season in Liguria not beautiful for a 7mt open motor boat, price of gasoline already high… fed up with the situation my husband says to me “see if there is any used sail,” I start surfing the internet and find a Sunbeam 39, a boat we had already visited at the Genoa Boat Show in 2000, for sale on a German site that says it is in Sardinia.

From the plotter’s photographs I see a Gulf and with the nautical charts I discover that it is the Gulf of Cagliari, in one photo you can see the gas station, with the pilot house I identify the only port with the gas station in that location Marina di Capitana. At this point I call the port to ask if there was a boat for sale and who I could talk to. They put me in touch with a broker who knew the owner and got me an appointment.

At the end of September I go down a week and meet the owner who was German from Ludwisburg, with the broker and an interpreter I visit the boat, at the harbor bar we talk about money, appraisals and documents and … I buy it! I tell my husband in the evening, he had stayed home, a bit puzzled but basically resigned…. Appraisals followed, I had an agency in Lignano do the paperwork because I knew more about not only domestic paperwork and especially the language.

In the end the owner thanked me for that too, I have the notarized deed in Italian and German. The first thing I bought her was the Italian flag and I am proud of it in spite of everything! Last tidbit: Beluga was the same boat that we had visited at the Show in 2000, the owner who had made it available for visits confirmed this to me. Just her … It was meant to be!

Ps.: It is not true that it is a nail!

The ski instructor who lives in a boat (Michele Cortelazzo)

The premise is that while I do not have parents with great passions for the sea, I have always liked boats, but I have not owned any except for a small speedboat that my father bought to make me happy at the age of 12 and which ended up miserably abandoned in a friend’s shed.

Nothing more until I met the mother of my children in late 2002, a woman who cannot live without the sea…. We took several boating vacations both motor and sailing guests from and with friends, but systematically after 12-13 days at sea I would freak out.

An accident happened on our last vacation as boyfriends (it was just the two of us and she was pregnant with our first child) on a sailboat, in which I was annoyingly injured in one leg by acid released from the batteries of a radio we had on board. I sued the manufacturer and obtained compensation. I quickly felt that that money could serve no other purpose than to purchase a “real” boat of my own SAILING ( the timing of the lawsuit meanwhile involved the arrival of two children).

Immediately she asked me surprised: Whyon earth if after 10 days at sea you’re freaking out, do you want to buy the boat? Do you know it’s a big commitment? Do you know it has costs, dock, maintenance, etc.? If you get tired?”

I replied : “Economically speaking going on vacation in 4 for 2 weeks in August in three years I pay for it and otherwise I feel inside that if the boat is mine where I can do whatever I want without the obligation of having strangers on board to bind me, my desire to go to sea will surely increase…, thirdly I have always made do with mechanical and miscellaneous work that I will surely take care of with passion personally” She manifested with her eyes a mixture of radiant happiness to equal hesitancy about the reliability of my words, but she did not try further to dissuade me.

It so happened that on July 28, 2013, I bought my current Elan 33 in Monfalcone and with a mixture of enthusiasm, courage and unscrupulousness , on July 30, 2013, I left with the family for a vacation in Croatia in the company of another Boat from the Trieste man who sold it to me and with whom I became friends.

The only concern was the mooring maneuvers with such a large boat that I was unfamiliar with (until then I had had experience with a 5 ml motor pilot boat in the lagoon where I live/had lived). I was never going to come back and today I am trying to stay on vacation for at least a month.

In the summer I live by boat, arrive Friday night go out and anchor in the middle of the lagoon to have dinner and sleep, Saturday sail around, return Sunday night full of energy…. Endless emotions.
I can say that it has become a drug, a clean drug.
Word of a ski instructor…

We need stories like these: send us your testimonies to speciali@panamaeditore.it! We will publish the best ones! And if you want to do more–attach a photo of you aboard your boat!