This rich gentleman goes around the world by himself. But in the boat he is not so good
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A Dutchman as rich as Scrooge will sail around the world. Pieter Heerema, 64, who heads the Heerema Group, one of the world’s largest marine oil & gas contractors, is preparing for the Vendée Globe, despite being a perfect layman of the oceans. So far he has practiced sailing on dragoons and RC44s, always between the buoys. Now, coached by Michel Desjoyeaux, he will take part in the Everest of sailors after buying the brand new boat that Andrea Mura was forced to sell due to lack of funds. The adventure that the Dutch businessman is about to embark on sanctions, in a way, the return of wealthy “amateurs” to the toughest sailing, the kind where, even with the help of modern technology, one always risks one’s skin. They have been missing for a long time, these “wealthy fools.”
“WEALTHY AMATEURS” OCEAN LOVERS
We tell you, in brief, three more stories of “wealthy amateurs” driven by passion for the oceans. Two of them went down in history, U.S. Weld and Baronet Chichester. But Italian urologist Edoardo Austoni also showed courage to spare…
PHIL WELD
The American amateur who made sailing history… thanks to the spinning reel
Philip Weld, after graduating from Harvard, became a successful publisher. He fell in love with sailing, especially multihulls, and in 1980, at age 60, he won the Ostar. His secret? The reel-to-reel, a first for those times.
FRANCIS CHICHESTER
The first man around the world in 1966
The 65-year-old Englishman with lung cancer embarks on a solo round-the-world journey, becoming the first man to succeed in the feat. Chichester had enriched himself by buying air charts from the Royal Air Force and then creating and selling maps and geodetic instruments.
EDOARDO AUSTONI
The urologist with a passion for the ocean
In the same year as Phil Weld’s victory, 1980, the already successful Italian physician Edoardo Austoni (who passed away in 2012), later to become chief of urology and andrology at Milan’s San Giuseppe Hospital, also took part in the solo Ostar (aboard the Chica Boba II).
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