Yanira

We had long desired a sailboat. Not as a possession but as a project of understanding life. Not for me, but to enjoy with all people around, closer together or further away, but with the same wish to live the experience of sailing. I was totally unaware at the time, but now I am sure that we decided to share a boat the day that Magdalena and I knew we were going to create a family…and so many things began to change.

The first impression that anyone takes when coming aboard Yanira is admiration. It is the evidence. It’s the feeling that I see in the faces of those who tread her deck for the first time. I also remember that feeling as mine when I went to meet her. This happened in Menorca, in April 2013, I had there a meeting with the previous owner. At age 72, Fico had decided to let Yanira, his partner since 1983, to start a new life. So there I was, after 35 minutes by plane and 15 minutes by taxi, completely fascinated with the personality of the great lady appeared right before my eyes in the natural harbor of Mahon. I was nervous, I remember it perfectly, between excited and insecure. Take charge of a wooden sailboat would entail a great responsibility. I wanted to pick up the phone and calling home, but I refrained. And then we go to sail.

At noon, it was a beautiful, sunny and clear sky day. It was blowing a typical spring sea breeze of around 6 knots, “with that we will not do very much,” I thought with my long experience as a plastic sailor. When leaving the port, Fico observed the conditions of the Mediterranean and asked me to help him hoisting the reacher, a foresail whose name I had never heard… of course that’s something I did not confess. When we hoisted the sail and turned off the engine, 22 tons of wood started to slide with amazing agility, the waves no longer shook us from side to side, but rather now were opening up to let sailing a powerful 18 meters hull. I believe Fico saw my face in astonishment when he gave me a swipe on the back for saying “now you are going to discover what is a wooden sailboat.”

Read the full story in issue 3