How boats and sailing became my life

When I finished school I went to work in one of Corfu's oldest and most established shipping agencies. It was called Three Seas Travel and belonged to Kostas Kontis, who was also a sailor. Amongst the big ships we catered to, we also dealt with a few yachts. Here are a few names I remember

 

Al Diriyah (ex Massarah ex Serendipity) I knew her when she was called Massarah. She was owned by an Arab Sheikh who had his full harem onboard too. I never went onboard but regularly met the ship's chef or purser to go shopping with them to the market. We often needed to get weird things organised for them, like iceberg lettuce that had to be flown out from Canada or something ridiculous. They stayed for months, anchored off Vido. It is possible the Sheikh tried to buy Vido, he was so fond of it. 

I would go shopping with the crew and organise delivery by the dock in the Old Port. I would then wait by the stacks of crates and fresh produce, while the crew ferried it over in the tender. When they finally left, there was a hundred dollar bill left on my desk, as a tip.

 

Another yacht we catered to was the Empress Subaru. It belonged to the US Subaru dealer. They had a helicopter onboard and a 3.5L Subaru AWD car. When they left Corfu, they went to Italy for the winter. There the crew apparently had a big party onboard and enrolled the services of a stripper. They then refused to pay her. Unfortunately for them she was very well acquainted with the local Police chief. The Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza, came down on them like a ton of bricks. The car and helicopter were impounded and the Captain had to come back in early spring to pick

the car and helicopter up. The yacht generally did not have good luck as I have found out. Here you can see why. She was built in the CRN yard, hull no 071.

There was also a beautiful converted North sea trawler called Sonne. The german owner was a big coffee importer to Germany. The yacht was run by a Portuguese skipper called Jose. He was short and grey haired with a thick mustache and had the most amazing stories. He had been a dancer and choreographer. He had been sailing in Greece since the early seventies. We became friendly and I spent some time onboard with him. He was a great cook too. I learned how to make pasta with anchovies and olives from him. One evening over conversation I discovered he had known my Aunt Sheena, who used to live in Athens in the early seventies with her Greek boyfriend who was also a sailor and owned a pet monkey called Arthur. They used to hang out wityh lots of artists, amngst them Mariza Koch, a greek singer.It was such a peculiar coincindence. I later confirmed they knew each other when I spoke to my Aunt. A few years later I would also meet her boyfriend's cousin Christos Aggelakis, a greek sailor and poet. He owned a Sunkiss 47 called Kouros. The sailing world is small as I would have the opportunity to realise many times over the next years.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of Sonne but she looked sort of like this:

This was the sort of style, but Sonne was older. About 12,5 meters long and with a big bowsprit in front. The beds inside were made in a reclining shape and the interior was painted a pastel green with a platinum patina, apparently a paint they ordered especially for Sonne. Jose spent a winter in Corfu and I helped him prepare the yacht for lay up. It was likely the first time I realised how much I enjoyed even just "messing about on boats" 
Sonne was built as a fishing trawler near the turn of the century and had been converted to a yacht. She also had a bronze bathtub.

Finally there was also the yacht that was to be my first opportunity to possibly become a professional crew member. The yacht was Columbia (US-16) an America's Cup defender. Columbia had succesfully defended the Cup in 1958 against Sceptre. By the time she was in corfu she had been converted to a cruising yacht. I remember goin onboard and meeting the French crew. The mast was so big I could not get my arms around it. They needed an extra crew member for the summer. The deal was I would sail with them as far as Rhodes or Κos and then return. I turned down the offer, something I regret to this day. I still had my national service to do, I was in love, I had a stack of excuses for not sailing on an America's Cup defender yacht which seem quite feeble to me now. This is what she looked like. Yes I know. I should have gone.

But my sailing career thankfully did not end here. More in the next post.