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Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 31 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lavrio, Kalamaki, the Piraeus, and Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: more than 4000 nm (or the sail from Piraeus to Tromso Norway via the Gibraltar straits)
Places most visited: Aegina, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, Agistri, Metohi, Parapola, and Porto Heli
In the year Greece took over the presidency of the European Council for the first time, the shores of eastern Attica welcomed a brand new yacht into its waters, off the shipbuilding town of Lavrio. Thirty-one years, three owners and a few paint jobs later, she still sets sail every summer, exploring the little known Archipelago of Attica. As Altair, she spent the first seasons of her life taking sailors on cruises all over the Aegean, while winter was spent sheltered in ports around Athens.
As Nikolas, she came to know the main peopled islands surrounding Athens; Aegina, Poros, Hydra and especially Spetses. Her owner, an olympic bronze medalist in the Moscow Olympics, retired from sailing to a life of developing restaurants, and well stocked watering holes. Two such establishments were built on the island of Spetses, 54nm south-west of Athens. Nikolas sailed every brick, building material, glass and spirit that cooled the sweltering summer evenings in Spetses for twenty years.
As her current owner found out, the result of using a pleasure yacht as a bulk carrier had its consequences. He had bought a sailing boat with a burned out engine. After a refit and a refurbishment, Water Symphony IV now splits her time discovering the waters of some of the 150 islands of the Archipelago of Attica, and as a Race Committee vessel for yacht races in Athens and Spetses.
Type of Sail: AP Cruising Genoa
Age: 31 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lavrio, Kalamaki, the Piraeus, and Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: more than 4000 nm (or the sail from Piraeus to Tromso Norway via the Gibraltar straits)
Places most visited: Aegina, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, Agistri, Metohi, Parapola, and Porto Heli
In the year Greece took over the presidency of the European Council for the first time, the shores of eastern Attica welcomed a brand new yacht into its waters, off the shipbuilding town of Lavrio. Thirty-one years, three owners and a few paint jobs later, she still sets sail every summer, exploring the little known Archipelago of Attica.
As Altair, she spent the first seasons of her life taking sailors on cruises all over the Aegean, while winter was spent sheltered in ports around Athens. As Nikolas, she came to know the main peopled islands surrounding Athens; Aegina, Poros, Hydra and especially Spetses. Her owner, an olympic bronze medalist in the Moscow Olympics, retired from sailing to a life of developing restaurants, and well stocked watering holes. Two such establishments were built on the island of Spetses, 54nm south-west of Athens.
Nikolas sailed every brick, building material, glass and spirit that cooled the sweltering summer evenings in Spetses for twenty years. As her current owner found out, the result of using a pleasure yacht as a bulk carrier had its consequences. He had bought a sailing boat with a burned out engine. After a refit and a refurbishment, Water Symphony IV now splits her time discovering the waters of some of the 150 islands of the Archipelago of Attica, and as a Race Committee vessel for yacht races in Athens and Spetses.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Alimos Marina, Athens
Distance Travelled: ?2500 nautical miles or a sail from the western edge of Cyprus via the Gibraltar straits to Gran Canaria on the Canary islands.
Places most visited: Santorini, Milos, Kea aka Tzia, Kythnos, Syros
Sail Number: N/A (only racing yachts get sail numbers)
As far as we could find out this well used mainsail knew Syros and Santorini most. Santorini provides iconic pictures of Greece. A church dome painted Aegean blue under a sea of white houses and below, the dark volcanic soil of Santorini with the Aegean as a background. But with the strong north winds of the summer months Syros, closer to Athens and with a hospitable port, was this mainsails favorite port of call.
Syros, the capital of the Cyclades, with its neoclassical mansions and opera house is always cooler during sweltering July and August days and has a number of spectacular white beaches hugging its coast. For half a decade this mainsail treated its users to Didymi and Strongilo, the islands that form the entrance to Syros main town and hide little known white sand beaches that, at night, hide the town lights and reveal a busy night sky seldom seen in Europe today. This sail took sailors to otherwise unreachable nooks in the Aegean and at the same time revealed a time before electricity hid the stars from us. We like where sails can take you.
Happy travels.
Type of Sail: Genoa #4
Age: 23 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea.
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The former head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut theirteeth trimming this sail.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk.
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu.
Probably froma Jaguar 27.
This story reminds us that it's not the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley
Type of Yacht: 40 ft cruising yacht
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Alimos, Attica
Distance Travelled: Over 4000 nm (or a sail from Piraeus to Tromso, Norway via the Gibraltar straits)
Places most visited: Milos, Santorini, Leros, Rhodes, Koufonisia, Hydra, Spetses
Wind Spotting, Aegean style.
The Hellenic Offshore Racing Club has been running the Aegean Rally for just over half a century. A good friend of ours (a sea of knowledge, who we tend to call, mostly, when stuck with no wind in the middle of a race) has taken part in over 40 of them. The Aegean Rally is one of the world's great regattas mixing hard racing with hard partying, sleepless nights, and blustery northerly winds.
Taking part means becoming a member of a long movable feast, one that extends over ten days and more than 300 nautical miles. When becalmed in the middle of the Aegean the second or third thing you do (we can't say what the first is) is look for boats sailing in the distance. It gives you a heads up on the coming weather, it's like a teaser trailer on what's going to happen. This sail came to us from a creature often beheld in the Aegean. The sail of a portly and well-stocked cruising yacht. Spotting one of these creatures is often the difference between winning and losing a race.
Enjoy the sea.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 24 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens, The Piraeus, harbor of Mounihia
Distance Travelled: Over 8.000 miles - or more than twice across the Atlantic
Places most visited: Pick an island, pick a bay, it has been there.
Sail Number: GR 49279
Our friend, our teacher Yannis, has been racing in the Aegean for over 60 years. At every major regatta in Greece he has been the best source of information on how to sail fast and win, racing through the archipelago. We are proud to give these sails a new life as Salty Bags.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 23 years old
Material: Kevlar
Lived in: The Piraeus, harbor of Mounihia
Distance Travelled: Over 4.000 miles - or a sail across the Atlantic and a sojourn along the eastern seaboard.
Places most visited: Pick an island, pick a bay, its probably been there.
Sail Number: GR 00
One of the magical things about offshore sailing is crossing the finishing line at night. At this end of the world racing starts either at 1000 or 1600 hours, meaning you've spent at least 6-12 hours on the water. Then, salt-faced, aching, tired and with a good slap of sunstroke you come upon an island all lit up.
Hundreds and hundreds of lights greet you and the promise of a night to remember is kept alive by the ever growing booming of seaside clubs. The only thing left to do is to finish. This involves finding a single, miniscule, light atop a buoy amid the haphazard display of, human habitation, cars, bikes, boats, bicycles and houses. Every light is an opportunity but only one, little blinking light among the black is the right one. This sail, this owner has never lost his light, his calling, his way home.
Our friend, our teacher Yannis, has been racing in the Aegean for over 60 years. At every major regatta in Greece he has been the best source of information on how to sail fast and win, racing through the archipelago. We are proud to give these sails a new life as Salty Bags.
Type of Yacht: Beneteau Cyclades 50.3
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Alimos, Attica.
Distance Travelled: More than 4000 nm (or a sail from Piraeus to Tromso, Norway via the Gibraltar straits)
Places most visited: Milos, Santorini, Leros, Rhodes, Koufonisia, Hydra, Spetses
The Hellenic Offshore Racing Club has been running the Aegean Rally for just over half a century. A good friend of ours (who we always call when becalmed in the middle of a leg) has raced in over 40 of them. It's one of the worlds great regattas mixing hard racing and hard partying.
When becalmed in the middle of the Aegean the second or third thing (we aren't aloud to say what the first is) you do is look for boats sailing in the distance to check make out how they are sailing. It gives you a heads up on the coming weather.This sail comes from a creature often beheld in the Aegean and inspired by a grand race week-long race . The mainsail of a portly and well-stocked Beneteau Cyclades 50.3. Spotting one of these creatures can be the difference winning and losing a race. We hope you enjoy a good sail as much as we do.
Visit Tuscany. At least once.
On crisp spring mornings exiled Napoleon could just make out the village spire of Gavorrano to the east of his jail, the island of Elba. Gavorrano is one of those medieval villages perched on a hill with roads like vermicelli dropped on a plate half-designed to confuse breathless pirates trudging up to sack the place.
The shores where these hungry-eyed buccaneers used to sail their boats up to with dreams of pillaging Gavorrano have now been stepped on, paved, built up, inserted with cranes, slips, pontoons, jetties, and the occasional gelateria. Now known as the Marina di Scarlino more than 750 boats sleep there, safe from the whims of the Tyrrhenian sea. Marinas have seasonal lives, waking up from their winter slumber around April before going back to sleep around September. Canny Marina owners try to slip in a few regattas between October and March to keep everyone a little busier a little earlier.
So it was that in March 2012, a few months after Ioannis had qualified in his Finn dinghy for the London Olympics he set off to race in Scarlino. After the first days racing he found himself at the bottom of the pile. The thing with racing a sailboat in light winds is that it requires a lot of patience. So he decided to disregard the results and focus on racing fast, and carefully.
He would take one race at a time, cross one bridge at a time. It payed off. By staying focused every moment he was crowned European champion for the year. One race, one start, one tack at a time. Never mind the frustrating wind, never mind the gorgeous Tuscan scenery. Ignore the mountains of history around. Conquer the moment, he told us, but make time later to study the other moments.
The Fremantle Doctor always seems to be around. He usually makes his rounds at midday and finishes as the night shift takes over. As the town of Perth grew in size, so has his practice. He seems to service most of the city, and his cure for the summer heat of this western Australian town has never changed. He prescribes wind, a lot of it, and if you are on the water you get an extra special serving of ocean swell to go with it. To be precise as well as concise the Fremantle Doctor is the local name for the global phenomenon known as sea-breeze, and a walloping 18-25 knots of it, daily.
In 1987 one of the greatest chapters in sailing history was written under his auspices when Dennis Conner and his Stars n Stripes team took back the America's Cup amid broken masts, broken boats and broken egos, all courtesy of the Doctor.
In 2011 the Doctor's often frustrating cure had another victim. Ben Ainslie who had already won four Olympic medals (three golds and a silver) had had a hard day on the water. He decided that the TV crew following him around the racecourse was to blame. So he jumped of his Finn dinghy swam to the TV crews R.I.B jumped on board, whaled at the crew before promptly jumping off again and swimming back to his Finn.
A few meters behind him Ioannis Mitakis was sailing into the harbour exhausted but exhilarated. His goal for the event, the 2011 International Sailing Federation combined World Championships, had been accomplished. He had got Greece qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. He was, after more than 1400 gruelling days of that Olympic cycle, finally, on his way to Weymouth. Ioannis didn't do particularly well in the event, he finished 21st, but he didn't need to. He just needed to qualify for the Olympics, the first step on his journey to an Olympic Medal, and he had done just that.
In the year Greece took over the presidency of the European Council for the first time, the shores of eastern Attica welcomed a brand new yacht into its waters, off the shipbuilding town of Lavrio. Thirty-one years, three owners and a few paint jobs later, she still sets sail every summer, exploring the little known Archipelago of Attica.
As Altair, she spent the first seasons of her life taking sailors on cruises all over the Aegean, while winter was spent sheltered in ports around Athens. As Nikolas, she came to know the main peopled islands surrounding Athens; Aegina, Poros, Hydra and especially Spetses. Her owner, an olympic bronze medalist in the Moscow Olympics, retired from sailing to a life of developing restaurants, and well stocked watering holes. Two such establishments were built on the island of Spetses, 54nm south-west of Athens. Nikolas sailed every brick, building material, glass and spirit that cooled the sweltering summer evenings in Spetses for twenty years.
As her current owner found out, the result of using a pleasure yacht as a bulk carrier had its consequences. He had bought a sailing boat with a burned out engine. After a refit and a refurbishment, Water Symphony IV now splits her time discovering the waters of some of the 150 islands of the Archipelago of Attica, and as a Race Committee vessel for yacht races in Athens and Spetses.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film.
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea.
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Reminds us of our teachers and friends who first taught us of the sea.
For most sailors from Attica this happens during the bi-annual Hydra race. At the beginning and end of each sailing season in Athens 90-110 yachts launch into Phaleron bay for the 36 mile sprint to one of the most iconic island in Greece.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: More than 15 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Gouvia marina
Distance Travelled: 1500nm
Places most visited: Corfu-Ionian Islands-Patras and Corinthian Gulf
Not much to say. We fished it from a bin in marina Gouvia in Corfu. The owner of the Gibsea 31 thought that was a good idea.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Gouvia marina
Distance Travelled: 9000nm
During 2006 genoa travelled from the south coast of france to corsica and from Corsica to Isola di Aeole (south italy), then to Regio di Calabria(Italy) and Corfu.From 2006 to 2013 the sail was used for pleasure and mostly travelled in Ionian Islands untill its replacement by a new laminate sail.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 22 years old
Material: Kevlar and Mylar
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: 1800nm
Places most visited: The Florida Keys, Milos, Miami, Hydra and Phaleron bay
Sail Number: GRE 46
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team Rush dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Medium Genoa #1
Age: 21 years old
Material: Kevlar yarn sandwiched between mylar film.
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: 800-1100 nm
Places most visited: Athens, Poros, Hydra, Kea, Kythnos and G�alicia and the island of Palma de Majorca in Spain.
Sail Number: GR 49288 (we think)
UB40 are topping the charts with Can't help falling in love with you. Bill Clinton will become 42nd President of the USA. Michael Jordan will score his 20,000th point in the NBA. The year is 1993. On the bracing waters of Galicia, Spain a new arrival on the grand-prix yachting scene is going to be reminded how complex sailing is.
While testing the mast bend characteristics on their boat they succeed in breaking 2 masts in a one day. Recovering from the shock and damage they race they step their third, and final, mast and go on to finish a punishing week of racing a disappointing 4th in the 3/4 ton World Championships.
Months of training, careful sail selection, mast tuning, and a long trip from Greece to Spain can only be filled with the lessons learnt from a team that could have but didn't. A small engineering miscalculation (with the spreaders on the mast) and a couple of misplaced screws sunk Atalanti Victory's chances of lifting the World Championship trophy that year.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1 (Light)
Age: about 32 years old
Material: Kevlar* yarns bonded in Mylar film
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: about 500-800nm
Places most visited: Athens, Phaleron Bay, St. George's Island, Modhi, Poros and Hydra.
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, at Olympic Yachts in Lavrio she was the second Atalanti team half-toner. She is the only yacht to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand that raced in the last 4 America's Cups raced in the 1982 Worlds and probably trimmed this sail.
Reminds us of: Teachers and friends who let you in on the sea. These were the first sailors from Greece to race offshore boats at an international level. By the time most of them retired to local coastal racing they had brought back more medals in 15 years than anyone in the previous 60.
*Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide or Kevlar is kg for kg about 5 times stronger than steel at a fraction of it's weight. Kevlar's strength and light weight has found application mostly in bullet-proof vests and helmets. Sailmakers loved it because it was stronger and less stretchy in the 70's and 80's than any other commercially available yarn.
Tip: If you see yellowish coloured sails they are most probably are made from Kevlar and they probably are more than 25 years old.
Type of Sail: Standard Mainsail
Age: More than 15 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Corfu
Distance Travelled: Unknown
Places most visited: The local Sea Scout troupe made a point of travelling pretty much all over the northern Ionian islands. This sail has see a lot.
After its retirement the Sea Scouts used it as a tent until they decided to donate it to us. Just like Enjoying a work of art of great master. Then going home and while rummaging in forgotten storage finding a Panini sticker album, still smelling as it did the day you found that special rare sticker that completed your album.
Type of Sail: Roller Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3.000 nm
Places most visited: Has seen every bay and cove in the Ionian north of Paxos-AntiPaxos as well as a good chunk of southern Italy. Has taken part in every Ionian Regatta as well as quite a few Brindisi-Corfu races over the past 7 years.
She won the Brindisi-Corfu Regatta in her class in 2010.
Sagely advice you can only imbibe from your first teacher. That special person who teaches you how to love and express yourself by means of an age-old craft.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 23 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Athens and the Ionian islands.
Distance Travelled: N/A
Sail Number: GRE 49158
Places most visited: The Ionian Islands north of Ithaka.
Fished out of the back of a musty storage locker in Corfu Yacht Club. Participated in most sailboat racer around Corfu from 1996 to 1999 as well as the annual Brindisi to Corfu regatta.
Type of Sail: Roller Mainsail
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Turkey, Aegean Sea, Athens, Ionian islands
Distance Travelled: Over 7,000 nm.
Places most visited: Athens, Ionian Sea
Sail Number: BAV 42
A charter boat for 7 years travelled a lot between Bodrum and Kos. Ripped in a Storm off Paxos in the Ionian Sea.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 6 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Between Corfu & Athens
Distance Travelled: About 8.000 nm
Places most visited: Ionian Islands
Sail Number: BAV 40
A well run charter boat, Madrugada has made a home of almost every cove south of Lefkimi in Corfu. Has a soft spot for Ithaka.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 3 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens, raced in the Half tonner Worlds in Athens in 1980. In Corfu since 1984.
Distance Travelled: More than 6000 n.m
Places most visited: Northern Ionian Islands.
Sail Number: GRE 5296
A full bore racing yacht from the 1980's. In her 20 year career she took part in almost every race she could find. Loved the Brindisi to Corfu distance race held annually in June. Thrown away in a sail-locker. Found at the Corfu Sailing Club.
Type of Sail: AP (All Purpose) Genoa
Age: 12 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: over 14,000 nm or New York to the Lizard, L.A to Sydney, and Perth to Cape Town combined.
Places most visited: Ithaka and Lefkada
Sail Number: GRE 2862
Nautor Swan yachts are built in Finland and made to last quite a bit more than a lifetime. This is probably the first boat from this yard to arrive in Greece. It has been said that she mysteriously used to hang around the Strophadhes islands.
Reminds us of: Sailing halfway around the world to realise you feel at home where you started. That being the point.
Type of Sail: All Purpose Genoa
Age: 34 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: about 1800 nm
Places most visited: Unknown
Sail Number: Unknown
Very little is known about where Tramp lived and sailed. It is said she usually visited uninhabited islands.
Type of Sail: Reaching Spinnaker
Age: 12 years old
Material: 0.5 ounce Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Ionian
Distance Travelled: Over 900 nm
Places most visited: Aegean Rally stopover ports 2009-2011
Sail Number: GRE-1364
Raced every major regatta in Greece from 2009 to 2011. Destroyed during the 2012 Corfu-Brindisi race in a force 8 storm.
Type of Sail: Light Air Genoa
Age: 17
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Enjoyed travelling around the Saronic and Argolic gulfs.
Distance Travelled: 4000 n.m
Places most visited: Argo-Saronic Gulf, Poros, Hydra and Dhokos.
Started her life as a charter boat and ended up as a full-time racer. Retired 7 years ago. Thrown away and forgotten.
Type of Sail: Cruising Roller Genoa
Age: 4 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Islands
Distance Travelled: More than 2000 n.m
Places most visited: Northern Ionian Islands.
Sail Number: BAV 35
Formion is a charter yacht for those who are new to cruising. They gave this young sail such a beating that it had to be retired early. Still has plenty of miles in it as a Salty Bag.
Reminds us of: Erikoussa, a small island north of Corfu, with a lot to discover.
Type of Sail: Cruising Roller Main
Age: 6 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens - Ionian Islands
Distance Travelled: More than 5000 n.m
Places most visited: Northern Ionian Islands.
Sail Number: BAV 38
Pelias is a charter yacht. Her mainsail was badly damaged while the yacht was sailing from Athens to Corfu during a storm off Messolonghi.
Reminds us of delivering boats across the Corinth Gulf on the way to Corfu and stopping off in Ithaca for a coffee at daybreak.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk.
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu.
Sail Number: N/A
We think the Genoas come from the sail wardrobe of a Jaguar 27.
Reminds us of: The fact that it's not always the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk.
It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Type of Sail: N/A
Age: 10 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Alimos Marina, Attica
Distance Travelled: 30000-35000nm (Cape Town to Hawaii is about 10000 nm)
Places most visited: Western Cyclades and the Argosaronic Gulf
The owners of S/Y PEGGY apparently really really really worked this sail. They can't tell us much about where she travelled, she is a charter yacht so memories of coves and storms and starlight nights are with the hundreds of happy sailing holiday goers.
Mrs. Manto can speak of the love she has for her Peggy, how she cares for her every day, how she frets whenever she receives word of inclimate weather, how she breathes a sigh of relief every time she safely docks in port after a long sail in the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 14
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Marina Alimos, Attica
Distance Travelled: Plenty of miles close to 2000 (ten times from Athens to Crete)
Places most visited: The whole of Greece
This sail was the last physical memory that Mr. P had of his yacht. Life takes its toll, it was time to part with the years spent with Nicholas P, the life they had together. Onwards, we guess.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000-5000 nm
Places most visited: The Dhiapontia islands, Syvota, Paxoi.
Clients of our ran aground last year. With that the threw the sails towards us. Nikos, the owner was sweaty dirty and in no mood to talk. We were happy he came to us to forget the terrible accident that befell S/Y Starlight. You hold in your hands the aftermath of a grounding and five years of cruising in one of the last secrets of the Med. The gorgeous Dhiapontia islands.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 4 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Marina Alimos, Attica
Distance Travelled: About 2000 n.m
Places most visited: The Argosaronic gulf and the eastern Peloponnese
The north-eastern shores of the Peloponnese were never a tourist Mecca. Just as well, visitors and travelers often get to experience a less tourist friendly part of Greece. Mixed among towns that happily failed to become "fast-food" towns for cheap beer seekers, you will find the untouched and the exquisitely kept.
Canny sailors though can tell you about a few places that can change you life drawing you back as if you were its magnetic opposite. Astros, part of forgotten Kynouria, peppered with 19th century grand houses, or Fokianos, whose quiet bay can stop time during a full moon. This sail saw its fair share of moons over Fokianos. Follow its memory there.
Type of Sail: Mainsail (most of it), a Jib (partly)
Age: A 4 year old Mainsail and a 9 year old Jib
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Mounihia harbor (aka Tourkolimano, aka Mikrolimano), Attica
Distance Travelled: About 1500 n.m (on average)
Places most visited: Phaleron bay, and the western Cycladic island of Kea and Kythnos
We usually make our bags from a unique piece of sail. This is not your bag. We made this bag from a dinghy jib a cruising mainsail. The pieces were lying around and we thought we should play around. The mainsail has known Kea and Kythnos, especially Kea's huge natural harbor of Vourkari and it's memorable Lobster pasta and the dinghy jib has seen almost as much of the bottom of Phaleron bay as its sky. It taught a lot of sailors to love the sea. We hope it reminds you of that love.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 6 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Alimos marina, Attica
Distance Travelled: 3000 n.m (or a sail from Los Angeles to Hawaii and then adding another 500 miles)
Places most visited: The Cyclades
Chartering tourists googled pictures of Greece. Azure waters, square white houses wearing bougainvilleas on their shoulders stashing next to semi-arid Mediterranean brush. For six years all that is postcard perfect this sail went to. Like an algorithm blindly seeking the beautiful grated into the banal by short-term needs and degraded attention spans. Sometimes satisfying a Google search is not enough, sometimes.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 25-30 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: The Hellenic Navy Boat House, Mounihia harbor
Distance Travelled: 10000-20000 n.m
Places most visited: The Aegean below Skyros
This is the mainsail or the Hellenic Navy "hospital ship" Maistros (the north-west wind). It's not really a hospital ship. It's a sail training ship for Hellenic Navy cadets but in times of war it unmercifully becomes a hospital ship. For three decades more or less almost every sailboat racer in Greece that was conscripted into the navy for their compulsory military service had to race an Aegean Rally with this boat or its sister Sorokos (South wind).
The Bob Miller* designed yacht from the 1970's pushed so much water that after 12-14 knots of boat speed downwind spinnakers would tear from the weight of this non-planning lead mine. But we loved it. As a conscript you got to sail for 10 ten days instead of cleaning toilets or washing dishes. The officers in charge were almost always Olympic sailors and there was a ton to learn from them. So take care of this sail that so many competitive sailors learnt to love as the best, cheapest, sailing vacation and escape from drudgery they could get their hands on.
*Bob Miller wasn't famous or successful for his designs. When he changed his name to Ben Lexcen and designed the 12mr Australia II his position improved.
Type of Sail: Roller Main
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth (a.k.a Dacron)
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk.
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu.
Sail Number: N/A (she never raced so we did not find any sail numbers on this main)
This Roller Main came from the wardrobe of a Jaguar 27, a very small sailing vessel. We found a fairly large, abandoned sail wardrobe, some information on where it travelled and where it lived. Every so often though, small boats make a huge difference, to the lives of their owners, to the lives of their guests.
cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley for example.
Type of Sail: Storm Jib
Age: 25 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: 10000-20000 n.m
Places most visited: The 3/4 Ton Worlds in 1990 and 1991.
Sail Number: GRE 4109
From one of the first Greek teams that became Offshore Sailing World Champions. Retired along with the boat after 1991 along with the venerable IOR rating rule. Almost ran aground off Flensburg in Glucksburg Germany.
Type of Sail: Cruising Genoa
Age: Probably 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: Unknown
Places most visited: The 3/4 Ton Worlds in 1990 and 1991.
Sail Number: Unknown
Found in a trash bin at Marina Gouvia in Corfu, like artifacts of uknowable use and provenance that you come across in a musty attic and can only imagine their purpose and journey.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 6 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: About 2,000 nm.
Places most visited: Has thoroughly explored both the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Sail Number: BAV 38
A working life cut short from exposure to the elements. It reminded us of the wild, katabatic winds you encounter in the straits between the Cyclades that blow you from real danger to sandy beaches to sleepy ports in a few hours.
Type of Sail: Roller Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Turkey, Aegean Sea, Athens, Ionian islands
Distance Travelled: Over 7,000 nm.
Places most visited: Argo-Saronic Gulf, Ionian sea north of Kefalonia
Sail Number: BAV 42
A charter boat for 7 years travelled a lot between Bodrum and Kos. This sail was shredded in a storm off the island of Paxos in the Ionian Sea.
Type of Sail: Main Sail
Age: 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: Over 7,000 nm.
Places most visited: Athens, Aegean, Ionian, Corfu
Sail Number: BAV 36
Charter sail, and a practice workhorse.
Reminds us of those Sundays that you just have to wake up extra early to do all those things you really love that a long work week didn't let you.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 8 years old
Material: Heavy Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Places most visited: Sailed from South Africa to the Mediterranean before settling down to a life of sailing the Adriatic Sea mostly between Croatia and Italy.
Sail Number: Unknown
Replaced due to a serious problem to the webbings just before the annual Brindisi to Corfu race. It's a, usually, easy sail east and a great reason to start a lazy sojourn around the Ionian islands and then into the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Main Sail
Age: 12 years old
Material: Laminate Mylar
Located: Italy, Isola di Aeole, Corfu
Places most visited: South Italy, Calabria, Corfu
Sail Number: Unknown
Seriously damaged during the Brindisi-Corfu regatta.
Type of Sail: Flanker Spinnaker
Age: 54 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: N/A (dinghy)
Places most visited: Athens (Tourkolimano) Argo-Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
Raced in the Dragon Gold Cup (World Championships) from 1969 to 1974 then used as a spare sail till it was retired in 1990. We found this flanker in the back of a musty storage locker in Corfu.
Reminds us of: How age-old wisdom coupled with some good design principles can still help protect you from the elements.
Type of Sail: All Purpose (AP) Genoa
Age: 30
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens and raced in the Half tonner Worlds in Athens in 1980. Has been living in Corfu since 1984.
Distance Travelled: More than 6000 n.m
Places most visited: Northern Ionian Islands
Sail Number: GRE 5296
A full-blown racing yacht from the 1980's. In her 20 year career she took part in almost every race she could find. Loved the Brindisi to Corfu distance race held annually in June. Thrown away in a sail-locker. Found at the Corfu Sailing Club.
Type of Sail: Most probably a cruising Mainsail, from a Halberg Rassy 26.
Age: 33-38 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Born in the Baltic Sea, lived most of it's life all over the Mediterranean
Distance Travelled: upwards of 8000 nm
Places most visited: Mediterranean-Ionian Sea
Sail Number: Something, something -400
It's a pity when we find sails and we can't track down their full lives. We know it was retired in 1998. It was found in Marina Gouvia in Corfu.
Type of Sail: Jib no1 Light air
Age: Over 55 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens and Corfu Raced in the Dragon Gold Cup (World Championship) from 1969-1974.
Distance Travelled: N/A (dinghy)
Places most visited: Athens (Tourkolimano) Argosaronic Gulf
Retired in 1990, found in the back of a musty storage locker in Corfu.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 25 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: Over 2000 nm
Places most visited: N/A
Sail Number: GRE-4109
From one of the first Greek teams that became offshore World Champions. Replaced for being an inefficient shape after the team couldn't break into the top 5 in the last World they raced.
Type of Sail: Genoa #3
Age: 25 years old
Material: Kevlar
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: Over 2000 nm
Places most visited: Raced in the 3/4 Ton Worlds in 1990 and 1991
Sail Number: GRE-4109
From one of the first Greek teams that became offshore World Champions. Replaced for being an inefficient shape after the team couldn't break into the top 5 in the last Worlds they raced. Almost ran aground off Flensburg in Glucksburg Germany.
Type of Sail: Jib no3
Age: Over 50 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Raced in the Dragon Gold Cup (World Championship) from 1969-1974
Distance Travelled: N/A (dinghy)
Places most visited: Athens (Tourkolimano) Argosaronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
Retired in 1990, found in the back of a musty storage locker in Corfu.
Type of Sail: Heavy Air Mainsail
Age: 30 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: Over 16000 nm
Places most visited: Corfu & Paxos
Sail Number: N/A
One of the first Swans to arrive in Greece. Mysteriously used to hang around the Strophadhes islands.
Type of Sail: Mizzen Main
Age: 34 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: About 18000 nm
Places most visited: Unknown
Sail Number: N/A
Very little is known about where the Tramp lived and sailed. It is said she usually visited uninhabited islands.
Type of Sail: Main & Genoa
Age: 17 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Started her life as a charter boat and ended up as a full-time racer. Enjoyed travelling around the Saronic and Argolic gulf.
Distance Travelled: 4000 n.m
Places most visited: Argo-Saronic Gulf, Poros, Hydra and Dhokos
Retired 7 years ago. Thrown away and forgotten in a sail-locker.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 31 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: Over 2000 nm
Places most visited: Raced half-ton worlds in 1982 and 1993
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, at Olympic in Lavrio she was the second Atalanti team half-toner. She is the only yacht to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 20 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Athens, mostly
Distance Travelled: More than 2000 nm
Places most visited: Up and down the Argo-Saronic Gulfs for the half-ton worlds in 1982 and northern Spain for the resurrected world championships in 1993
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, at Olympic in Lavrio she was the second Atalanti team half-toner. She is the only yacht to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993.
These were the first sailors from Greece to race offshore boats at an international level. By the time most of them retired to local coastal racing they had brought back more medals in 15 years than anyone in the previous 60. This is one of the sails every other competing boat would hate. Whenever it was hoisted you would sigh knowing that this boat would just zoom past shortly.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 18 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: About 3500 nm
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the Cyclades multiple times, and Hydra
Sail Number: GRE 46
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team "Rush" dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
This reminds us of what the glam movement of the 70's must have felt when they first heard the Sex Pistols.
Type of Sail: Standard Mainsail
Age: Over 15 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: We will never know
Places most visited: Ionian islands and Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
Found in a bin in marina Gouvia. An overused Mainsail from a charter yacht, sun-burned stitching and all.
Reminds one of archeologists carefully dissecting an ancient trash-heap to let us in on how it might feel to live thousands of years ago.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 12 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: About 2000 nm
Places most visited: Raced in the world ILC 40 cup in 1996
Sail Number: GRE 46
Three Greek teams got together in the late 90's to make it possible to have some of the best sailors in the world descend on the Saronic for the ILC 40 World Championships. 2 Volvo Ocean Race winners, 4 America's Cup Skippers and their crews enjoyed a blustery meltemi for a week of racing on the water's off the Piraeus.
Reminds us of: The X-men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Batman getting together to fight evil.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 18 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: About 3500 nm
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the Cyclades multiple times, and Hydra
Sail Number: GRE 46
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team "Rush" dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Reminds us of: How "Smells like teen spirit" blew away anything you had heard before. How Rock reshapes itself every few years.
Type of Sail: Main Sail
Age: More than 20 years old
Material: Heavy Duty Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: Unknown
Places most visited: ?
Sail Number: N/A
Found in a bin at Μarina Gouvia.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: ?
Material: Light Dacron
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: ?
Places most visited: Kalamaki, Floisvos ?
Sail Number: Europe(dinghy)
Found in an old storage locker in Athens.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1 (Light)
Age: about 32 years old
Material: Kevlar* yarns bonded in Mylar film
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: about 500-800nm
Places most visited: Athens, Phaleron Bay, St. George's Island, Modhi, Poros and Hydra
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, at Olympic Yachts in Lavrio she was the second Atalanti team half-toner. She is the only yacht to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand that raced in the last 4 America's Cups raced in the 1982 Worlds and probably trimmed this sail.
Reminds us of: Teachers and friends who let you in on the sea. These were the first sailors from Greece to race offshore boats at an international level. By the time most of them retired to local coastal racing they had brought back more medals in 15 years than anyone in the previous 60.
*Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide or Kevlar is kg for kg about 5 times stronger than steel at a fraction of it's weight. Kevlar's strength and light weight has found application mostly in bullet-proof vests and helmets. Sailmakers loved it because it was stronger and less stretchy in the 70's and 80's than any other commercially available yarn.
Tip: If you see yellowish coloured sails they are most probably are made from Kevlar and they probably are more than 25 years old.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1 (Light)
Age: About 32 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns bonded in Mylar film
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: About 500-800nm
Places most visited: Athens, Phaleron Bay, St. George's Island, Modhi, Poros and Hydra.
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, at Olympic Yachts in Lavrio she was the second Atalanti team half-toner. She is the only yacht to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand that raced in the last 4 America's Cups raced in the 1982 Worlds and probably trimmed this sail.
Type of Sail: Genoa #2
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 21 years old
Material: Kevlar yarn sandwiched between mylar film
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: 800-1100 nm
Places most visited: Athens, Poros, Hydra, Kea, Kythnos, Galicia and the island of Palma de Majorca in Spain
Sail Number: GRE 49288
UB40 are topping the charts with "Can't help falling in love with you". Bill Clinton will become 42nd President of the USA. Michael Jordan will score his 20,000th point in the NBA. The year is 1993. On the bracing waters of Galicia, Spain, a new arrival on the grand-prix yachting scene, is going to be reminded how complex sailing is.
While testing the mast bend characteristics on their boat they succeed in breaking 2 masts in a one day. Recovering from the shock and damage they race they step their third, and final, mast and go on to finish a punishing week of racing a disappointing 4th in the 3/4 ton World Championships. Months of training, careful sail selection, mast tuning, and a long trip from Greece to Spain can only be filled with the lessons learnt from a team that could have but didn't. A tiny engineering problem (with the spreaders) and a couple of misplaced screws sunk Atalanti Victory's chances of lifting the World Championship trophy that year.
Type of Sail: L/M Genoa (Light/Medium)
Age: 21 years old
Material: Kevlar yarn sandwiched between mylar film
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: 800-1100 nm
Places most visited: Athens, Poros, Hydra, Kea, Kythnos, Galicia and the island of Palma de Majorca in Spain
Sail Number: GRE 49288
UB40 are topping the charts with "Can't help falling in love with you". Bill Clinton will become 42nd President of the USA. Michael Jordan will score his 20,000th point in the NBA. The year is 1993. On the bracing waters of Galicia, Spain, a new arrival on the grand-prix yachting scene, is going to be reminded how complex sailing is.
While testing the mast bend characteristics on their boat they succeed in breaking 2 masts in a one day. Recovering from the shock and damage they race they step their third, and final, mast and go on to finish a punishing week of racing a disappointing 4th in the 3/4 ton World Championships. Months of training, careful sail selection, mast tuning, and a long trip from Greece to Spain can only be filled with the lessons learnt from a team that could have but didn't. A tiny engineering problem (with the spreaders) and a couple of misplaced screws sunk Atalanti Victory's chances of lifting the World Championship trophy that year.
Type of Sail: Genoa #2
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Medium/Heavy Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Light Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Light Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49018
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Light Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Heavy Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 18 years old
Material: Kevlar x Mylar
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: About 3500 nm
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the Cyclades multiple times, and Hydra
Sail Number: GRE 46
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team "Rush" dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Reminds us of: How "Smells like teen spirit" blew away anything you had heard before. How Rock reshapes itself every few years.
Type of Sail: Light Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Genoa #4
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Roller Main
Age: 7 years old (probably)
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu-Gouvia
Distance Travelled: 7.000 nm (or it sure looked like it)
Places most visited: North Ionian Islands, allegedly
Sail Number: Ben 323
It always makes us sad when we can't find out what transpired in a sails' life. This time it wasn't a matter of us not being able to track the owner down. He didn't want to say. No voice leaves only space for the imagination.
Type of Sail: Furling Genoa
Age: 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Located: Corfu-Gouvia
Distance Travelled: 12.000 miles
Places most visited: Ionian islands
Sail Number: Ben 36
A workhorse of a sail this little Genoa went around a lot. By a lot we mean almost six times the sail from the port of Aden in Yemen to Colombo in Sri Lanka. This distance she accomplished by going up and down the Ionian Sea innumerable times, wow! It's unfortunate to sail past the beautiful quiet of Meganisi's coves so often and not stopping.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
We think the Genoas come from the sail wardrobe of a Jaguar 27.
Reminds us of: The fact that it's not always the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
We think the Genoas come from the sail wardrobe of a Jaguar 27.
Reminds us of: The fact that it's not always the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
We think the Genoas come from the sail wardrobe of a Jaguar 27.
Reminds us of: The fact that it's not always the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 12 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu-Gouvia marina
Distance Travelled: 10.000 miles, or a roundtrip from London to Lobito
Places most visited: Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
This Beneteau sail did a huge amount of sailing to and from beaches. Beneteaus are well designed and roomy as every modern short stay cruiser is becoming, and they seem to fill the most popular dipping spots often in unfortunate and loud ways. But in today's chase for quiet and repose in the Med they can also be a sign of lateness. Bather beware, if you see them motoring across the short hops of this sea in the mornings speed towards your destination. These boats are on the move and they will take your spot if you are to late.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: More than 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian
Distance Travelled: More than 10.000 miles
Places most visited: Ionian Islands
Sail Number: N/A
A otherwise run of the mill furling Genoa from a good old Beneteau 36. As good watery workhorses these sails try, often in vain, during the heady days of July and August to satiate cruising parties appetites made wet by beautiful brochure pictures. This sail, one of many, that was worked to the end of it's life travelling from Kastos, to Kalamos, to Meganisi, Lefkas and north is now in your hands ready for new travels.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 15-18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3000 nm or about 90 times the trip from Dover to Dunkirk
Places most visited: Lefkada to Lacca, Ghai to Fiscardo, and Marina Gouvia in Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
We think the Genoas come from the sail wardrobe of a Jaguar 27.
Reminds us of: The fact that it's not always the size of the boat that matters, cf. The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. It was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France to the safety of the British shores between 27 May and 4 June 1940. Over 800 little boats, some even smaller than this little Jaguar helped turn the tide of World war II, by ferrying 338,226 Allied soldiers to safety in 8 bomb-filled sleepless days and nights.
Check out the story of Chumley.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Unknown
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athens
Distance Travelled: We guess a good few thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Aegean (by the looks of it)
Sail Number: N/A
A Beneteau 31 sail that the Aegean winds did to it what they do. They Blew on this small sail, which pushed this small boat till the sail lost its shape and was thrown away (and recovered by us). We know she sailed into the Aegean often, so she was well walloped by the katabatic winds that rush down from Cape Sounion, old king Aegeas' window to the sea.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Over 25 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Lives in: Lefkas Marina
Distance Travelled: ? (i.e the symbol the owner put in the questionnaire)
Places most visited: All mediterranean at the end of its career mostly ionian islands found in Lefkas
Sail Number: N/A
Heirana is an old wooden boat. That can mean that we are lucky not to have to clean varnish off this sail. It certainly means that she is not from Greece. She came from the U.K. sailed into the Med and spent almost more decades than we have been sailing comparing scenery from Cap Ferrat to Calabria before settling into a routine of outings to Kastos and Kalamos in between the organised mayhem of Lefkas.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Gouvia Marina
Distance Travelled: 9.000 nm
Places most visited: The Ionian Islands
Sail Number: N/A
A great sailing from Corsica to Regio di Calabria as well as holidays in the Ionian.
During 2006 genoa travelled from the south coast of france to corsica and from Corsica to Isola di Aeole (south italy), then to Regio di Calabria(Italy) and Corfu.From 2006 to 2013 the sail was used for pleasure and mostly travelled in Ionian Islands until its replacement by a new laminate sail.
Type of Sail: Furling Genoa
Age: 8 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10.000 nm, or the round trip from Tenerife in the Canary islands to Cape town
Places most visited: Argosaronic Gulf, Ionian Islands
Sail Number: Bav 38
The Argolic and Saronic Gulfs are chock full of history, like Greece as a whole isn't you might say, and you would be right but we mean a lot, packed into few, relatively small islands. The trips made by this sail were not only to swim, they were to see where history was made.
Departing from Alimos in Athens into the Saronic to find the temples and ancient town of Aegina, then following the coast of the Peloponnese to Epidaurus where theatre was grand, past islands were pre-historic forages eked out an existence where gulls now live and so on down to Nafplio with thousands of sites still waiting to be discovered. We have little space here for the intrepid adventures of those who want to see how the world was. But it's there, to seek it out for oneself.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 8 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Discovered in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 12.000 nm
Places most visited: Patras Gulf, Ionian Islands
Sail Number: Bav 38
The Gulf of Patras can prove a hellish sail, that's where this sail was finally retired. When northwesterly winds billow in look for cover. If find yourself in the midst of such a wind and you have time and you want a city over your head, bear away to Patras. If you can take the beat try your luck getting to Ithaca or Cephalonia.
If not, those who know, usually local fishermen will stay the night under the delta of Achelous. The big dipper on a moonless night there is spectacular.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 15 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Discovered in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 10.000nm, like sailing 100 times from Athens to Kythera
Places most visited: Ionian Islands
Sail Number: Bav 34
This S/Y Siesta sail was very very dirty and quite rusty. That's just how things are. Scars on people, signs of use on sails, medals we wear that make us who we are. We like to use #NotAStain to let people know about sails with stories you can see. We encourage you like Siesta to visit and visit, and visit, Paxos and Anti-Paxos, they are magical, especially once the madding crowds are swatted away come late September.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 7 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Discovered in: Gouvia Marina
Distance Travelled: 9.000 nm
Places most visited: The Adriatic, Ionian Islands
Sail Number: Bav 34
During 2006 genoa travelled from the south coast of france to corsica and from Corsica to Isola di Aeole (south italy), then to Regio di Calabria(Italy) and Corfu.From 2006 to 2013 the sail was used for pleasure and mostly travelled in Ionian Islands untill its replacement by a new laminate sail.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: Over 15 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth aka Dacron
Discovered in: Trash at Gouvia Marina
Distance Travelled: Most probably upwards of 18000 nm, or 9 times from Faroe islands to Spitsbergen if anyone, ever, would sail that route so many times
Places most visited: Corfu-Ionian Islands-Patras and Corinthian Gulf (we guess)
Sail Number: N/A
This sail was found in a bin, at marina Gouvia. We haven't been the best stewards of our planet. We like to try to follow the saying "Good is the enemy of better". Not our motto but a pretty decent call to arms, still. We believe we can do things better, we also believe in making the best of things and building great products that have a history you can inherit. Sadly this sails' history is lost to us.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Discovered in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Other: Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Reminds us of: Our teachers and friends who first taught us of the sea.
For most sailors from Attica this happens during the bi-annual Hydra race. At the beginning and end of each sailing season in Athens 90-110 yachts launch into Phaleron bay for the 36 mile sprint to one of the most iconic island in Greece.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Discovered in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Other: Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Reminds us of: Our teachers and friends who first taught us of the sea.
For most sailors from Attica this happens during the bi-annual Hydra race. At the beginning and end of each sailing season in Athens 90-110 yachts launch into Phaleron bay for the 36 mile sprint to one of the most iconic island in Greece.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Discovered in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Other: Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Reminds us of: Our teachers and friends who first taught us of the sea.
For most sailors from Attica this happens during the bi-annual Hydra race. At the beginning and end of each sailing season in Athens 90-110 yachts launch into Phaleron bay for the 36 mile sprint to one of the most iconic island in Greece.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Carbon fibre
Lived in: Saronic Gulf
Distance Travelled: N/A
Places most visited: Saronic
Sail Number: GRE 700
This sail raced in the Saronic gulf of Athens between 2012-2016, exclusively, as her owner put it. The Saronic gulf is the middle left part of the Aegean, now mixed with the Corinthian gulf by virtue of the Corinth canal. Sail boats race on these waters from mid-February to the first week of December. A full racing calendar would take you around the gulf and into the Aegean forty five to fifty five times a year.
Lot's of racing, lot's of islands and late nights in windy seasides took their toll. One of the not so often mentioned benefits of living in Athens is that you can just pop down to a marina and sail away to beautiful islands whenever you want. With such a choice of islands available no wonder people brave the travails of living here.
Tip: Angistri and Moni, to the south of Aegina are gems.
Type of Sail: Genoa #1
Age: 5 years old
Material: Mylar
Lived in: Saronic Gulf
Distance Travelled: N/A
Places most visited: Saronic
Sail Number: GRE 700
This sail raced in the Saronic gulf of Athens between 2012-2016, exclusively, as her owner put it. The Saronic gulf is the middle left part of the Aegean, now mixed with the Corinthian gulf by virtue of the Corinth canal. Sail boats race on these waters from mid-February to the first week of December. A full racing calendar would take you around the gulf and into the Aegean forty five to fifty five times a year.
Lot's of racing, lot's of islands and late nights in windy seasides took their toll. One of the not so often mentioned benefits of living in Athens is that you can just pop down to a marina and sail away to beautiful islands whenever you want. With such a choice of islands available no wonder people brave the travails of living here.
Tip: Angistri and Moni, to the south of Aegina are gems.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: 3.000-5.000 nm
Places most visited: The Dhiapontia islands, Syvota, Paxoi
"Clients of our ran aground last year". With that the threw the sails towards us. Nikos, the owner was sweaty dirty and in no mood for a talk. We were happy he did come to us to forget the terrible accident that befell S/Y Starlight. You hold in your hands the aftermath of a grounding and five years of cruising in one of the last secrets of the Med. The gorgeous Dhiapontia islands
Type of Sail: Mainsail, Jib, Genoa, Storm Jib, Flying Jib, High Clew Jib, Mizzen, Mizzen staysail
Age: 6 months to 40 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Saronic Gulf, Ionian, Brindisi, Mykonos, Paros, Anti Paros, Spetses, Hydra, Poros, Aegina, Nafplio, Kalamata, Monemvasia, Kythera, Anti Kythera, Chania, Rethimno, Heraklio, Agios Nikolaos, Vai, Ierapetra, Kasos, Karpathos, Rhodes, Symi, Halki, Castelorizo, Kos, Samos, Ikaria, Levitha, Amorgos, Chios, Ios, Lesvos, Andros, Samothraki, Tinos, Limnos, Syros, Kyra Panagia, Kythnos, Allonisos, Kea, Skiathos,Cavo d' oro, Skopelos, Sifnos, Skyros, Donousa, Thasos, Koufonisi, Thesaloniki, Zakinthos, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Atokos, Oxia, Meganisi...
Distance Travelled: From 200 nm to 20000 nm
Places most visited: Agios Georgios, Agios Ioannis Diaporion, Agios Georgios Salaminos, Falconera, Fiscardo, Hora, Chora, Poli, Apollonia, Vrises, Panagia, Porto Cervo, Ponza, St.Tropez, Koukounaria, Super Paradise, Despotiko, Piperi, Ekvoles, Limenaria, Sithonia, Zogeria, Ag. Anargiri, Trikeri, Erikousa, Othonoi, Ai Lias, Skorpios, Skorpidi, Troizonia, Nafpaktos, Itea, Moni, Modi, Petrokaravo, Tselevinia, Epidavros, Kiparisia, Astros, Fokiano, Beach House, Foinikas, Parakopi, Fegari, Porto Carras, Tis Grias to Pidima, Hrisi Ammos, Piso Livadi, Mikro Livadi, Pano Livadi, Kato Livadi, Xero Livadi, Foinikounda. Pounta, Kolimbithra, Drakonisi, Kionia, Elia, Mavra Volia, Los...
Sail Number: GRE...
Our seasonal Salty Ornaments are made up of thousands of stories. We gathered them from the cuttings left over from every Salty Bag we ever made, and some we didn't make. We hate to throw away anything. We also do not appreciate how a festive season often becomes a mindless shopping spree.
So this year we took what was left over, what is usually passed over, and made Salty Ornaments from them. It;s what we do. It's how Christmas trees, or model boats in Greece, were once decorated. For thousands of years people intelligently, respectfully, practically and diligently reused everything.
We are, slowly, coming full circle in how we reuse, again. These ornaments are a very small part of that, they are upcycled pieces that were left over from our upcycling. They are what we have always done. Please remember to Celebrate our seas.
Type of Sail: Genoa #4
Age: 23 years old
Material: Kevlar
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra,the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The former head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their teeth trimming this sail.
Type of Sail: Heavy Genoa
Age: 33 years old
Material: Kevlar yarns sandwiched between mylar film
Lived in: The Piraeus, Mounihia harbour
Distance Travelled: 2000 nm
Places most visited: Athens, the Argo-Saronic Islands of Aeghina, Poros, Hydra, the upper Cyclades and Kea
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Main Sail
Age: 30 years old
Material: Kevlar yarn
Located: Athens
Distance Travelled: 100nm
Places most visited: Piraeus, Saint George island, Modhi island
Sail Number: GRE 49288
Built in 1982 by Chris Oniall at Olympic Yachts in Lavrion, on a design by Joubert and Nivelt, she was the second half-toner the sailing team bought. She is the only half-toner to win a World Championship eleven years apart, in 1982 and 1993. The head coach of Emirates Team New Zealand and a multiple Transpac winner first cut their offshore teeth on this little boat.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 10 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus, Tourkolimano harbour
Distance Travelled: Αbout 400nm
Places most visited: The Piraeus, Hydra, Kythnos, Sifnos, Serifos
Sail Number: GRE 540
Modus Vivendi, defined what a rambunctious sailing team meant, this side of the pond. A venerable team owning a few different sailing boats from a 80's tonner through mid 90's cool Mumm 36 to a small fleet of sport boats in the early aughts. This team too often partied harder than they sailed.
Then, sailing with hangovers the size of a cement truck in a force 7 gale, and winning is a grand feat in itself. The last of the Modus Vivendi boats was a spacious, wood paneled, breakdown prone fifty four foot cruiser. By the late aughts TV's and microwaves, and "raki", replaced bunk beds and cold, wet sandwiches.
If you wanted to listen to the stories of three decades of sailing it wasn't a bad venue. This sail cruised and raced for Modus Vivendi between the easy weekend races of Hydra and Kythnos before cooly delivering the owner to quiet coves in Serifos and Sifnos during summer months.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 14 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus, Tourkolimano harbour
Distance Travelled: Around 1500 n.m
Places most visited: The Piraeus, Psara, Astypalaia, Octapodhia, Milos, Cape Sounio
Sail Number: GRE 50 (we think)
Meliti II was the second cruiser/racer of the Atalanti sailing team. Atalanti sailing was one of the two dominant sailing teams in the golden age of offshore sailing, from the mid eighties to the aughts.
This spinnaker on Meliti II: ran aground, almost effected a helicopter SAR operation of the Hellenic Coast Guard after its EPIRB emergency beacon accidentally jettisoned, broke the boat, broke the race record, and won the Round the Aegean race. Meliti is now decommissioned waiting for new adventures. Till then this spinnaker was retired so snippets of the mayhem it was involved in can be shared. Enjoy the sea.
Type of Sail: Roller Genoa
Age: 18 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Aigina
Distance Travelled: Unknown
Places most visited: The Cyclades mostly, Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
A Bulgarian gentleman owns a boat called Havana that lives in Aigina, whose sail travelled for 18 years in the Cyclades. We love how, in the world today, you fit all these contrasting themes in one sentence with ease. Give her many more miles please. We will be here when you need to replace it.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 4 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: 13400 nm or a sail from London to Miami, four times
Places most visited: Ionian Sea and the Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
Achilles travels each year from the humid, mostly, windless Ionian, for at least 186 days of chartering in the Saronic Gulf. She then promptly returns, year in year out to race in North Aegean Cup.
Then winter, or what we understand as winter, sets in and she goes for her winter spa. A few months of pampering, cleaning, and washing, before she is out on some of the most beautiful seas again. The life of a Benetau Oceanis 361.
Type of Sail: Unknown
Age: At least 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Quite a few thousand miles
Places most visited: The Cyclades probably and the Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
One thing we do know about this sail is that it has unusual coffee coloured stitching. An old tradition and extremely well placed, like the glorious feeling of watching the sun rise with a cup of warm coffee to fight the morning dew, on a yacht in the Cyclades in June. Here is to those times when everything seems to fit together.
Type of Sail: Genoa, Mainsail
Age: Around 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Thessaloniki
Distance Travelled: 50.000 nm (a circumnavigation of earth and then some)
Places most visited: North Sporades and North Aegean Islands Lemnos, Agios Efstratios, Lesvos
Sail Number: GRE 1708
Mytilana is used for training at the Offshore Sailing School Macedonian-Thrace and also participates in the Thermaicos Gulf Offshore Races and the Aegean Regatta. All donated sails were used during our intensive sailing courses from Thessaloniki to Sporades and North Aegean Islands.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Whole Ionian
Distance Travelled: 14000 n.m
Places most visited: The port of Syvota and Lefkas to Plataria
Sail Number: N/A
This little Benetau Oceans 311 does one way two week cruises. That means it picks up holiday goers in the once interesting port of Syvota (go behind the port for some great swimming) and leaves them in Lefkas two weeks later having navigated some of the calmest, soul defining waters you will ever dive into.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Unknown
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The region of Attica
Distance Travelled: A long long way by what we could see
Places most visited: The Aegean, and the Argosaronic most probably
Sail Number: N/A
One of the few stories we couldn't track down. We know it travelled from Attica. It most probably passed by the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion before it exploring the Cyclades. If you sail in these waters find a cove close to the Temple that you enjoy sunrise and sunset is a unique experience. You will carry it with you wherever you go afterwards.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Unknown
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The region of Attica
Distance Travelled: A LONG way by what we could see
Places most visited: The Aegean, and the Argosaronic most probably
Sail Number: N/A
The sailmaker that gave us this sail from his locker couldn't remember much about this sail. The word written on the sail didn't help either. It said PINCO in large unfriendly letters. What is unussual, besides the word PINCO, is its green stiching. We are looking for a green boat probably. The one we know was sold long ago and her story brings tears to our eyes. Before the tears though, that boat had cradled a love afair decades in the making and gorgeous to behold. Let's remember great love afairs.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 year old sail
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Nydhri, the port of Lefkas in the Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: 13000 nm
Places most visited: Ithaca, Spartohori, Kefalonia
Sail Number: N/A
Samantha our wonderfull donator on behalf of Sailing Holidays had this to say:THIS GENOA WAS PURCHASED IN 2010 WHEN SAILING HOLIDAYS BOUGHT THE BOAT AND THEY SAILED FOR 5 YRS IN THE SOUTH IONIAN ISLANDS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF EVERY MAY AND OCTOBER WHERE THEY SAILED ONE WEEK IN THE NORTH IONIAN ISLANDS.
Spartohori doesn't really come up as a go to destination. That's probably good if you have visited...
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 7 year old sail
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Nydhri, the port of Lefkas in the Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: 13000 nm
Places most visited: Ithaca, Spartohori, Kefalonia
Sail Number: N/A
Samantha our wonderfull donator on behalf of Sailing Holidays had this to say:THIS GENOA WAS PURCHASED IN 2010 WHEN SAILING HOLIDAYS BOUGHT THE BOAT AND THEY SAILED FOR 5 YRS IN THE SOUTH IONIAN ISLANDS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF EVERY MAY AND OCTOBER WHERE THEY SAILED ONE WEEK IN THE NORTH IONIAN ISLANDS.
Spartohori doesn't really come up as a go to destination. That's probably good if you have visited...
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The island of Evia
Distance Travelled: 17500 nm
Places most visited: The North Spoardes island chain, Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonisos
Sail Number: N/A
Often overlooked the North Sporades offer a quaint piece of Greek island experience. Skiathos, Skopelos, and Alonissos still carry authentic experiences beautiful summer evenings with relaxing drinks and the feeling of a quieter more fulfilling life, in tune with nature. A life most probably worth living.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 8 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The Whole Ionian
Distance Travelled: 16000 nm
Places most visited: Parga, Paxos and Ithaca
Sail Number: N/A
"BENETEAU 331 MAIN SAIL SAILS THE WHOLE IONIAN EVERY SEASON FROM PLATARIA TO SIVOTA AND BACK"
How nice, reminds us of how Parga is becoming a go to destination for surfers nowadays, if the wind comes from the west or southwest and you like that sort of thing.
Enjoy the sea!
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 8 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The Saronic Gulf
Distance Travelled: 16000 nm
Places most visited: Epidhavro, Nafplion, Poros and Spetses
Sail Number: N/A
"BENETEAU 331 ARKOUDA SAILS THE SARONICS EVERY SEASON ON TWO WEEK TURN AROUNDS"
Working ceaselessly has its benefits if and only if you know what to do with you remaining time on the planet. Next time you pick up your tired mind for a drive home for a few minutes with your loved ones think of how much time you could, or should spend with them in the most beautiful of surroundings. If you can give them the gift of the Saronic gulf and its islands. They seldom disappoint.
Safe Travels.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 7 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Sivota and Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 13000 nm
Places most visited: Fiskardho, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Spartohori
Sail Number: N/A
"THIS IS A MAIN SAIL FROM THE CHARTER BOAT MELITI AND HAS ALWAYS SAILED THE SOUTH IONIAN ISLANDS ONE WEEK KEFALONIA FLOTILLA"
You know, Ithaca is to many a disappointment. Then again, as a great poet of modern Greece reminded us its not the place that counts but how you place yourself to learn from the place you want arrive at.
Type of Sail: Jib
Age: 20 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Phaleron Bay, Italy, UK
Distance Travelled: A few thousand miles
Places most visited: Phaleron bay, Koufonisia, Spetses
Sail Number: K8
Salty Bags designed for the Corfu Challenge 2017 skippers are made of a piece of yacht racing history.
This sailcloth was once the jib of Candida.
Designed by Charles Nicholson 1929 as a 23mr rule yacht, Candida was converted to a J-class in 1931, before unsuccessfully trying to win the challenger trials.
She was fully restored in 1995. She still sails, occasionally races, in the eastern Mediterranean nowadays, reminding her owners of the majesty of sailingl, to race, to enjoy the sea as humans have always done.
Type of Sail: Roller Genoa
Age: 6 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Over 10000 nm
Places most visited: Fiskardho, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Kastos and Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 8 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: The Saronic and Argolic Gulf
Distance Travelled: Over 14000 nm (or a sail to Hydra from Piraeus 388 times and then some)
Places most visited: Nafplio, Epidavro, Poros, Hydra
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 6 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 10500 nm
Places most visited: Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 10 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: South Ionian
Distance Travelled: 15000 nm
Places most visited: Parga, Paxos, Sivota
Sail Number: N/A
A strong cruising sail will last 6-8 years. A well made workhorse will last as much as Amalia's sail did. Of the three places it most visited we would like to offer our non-expert opinion, in order of appearance: Surf there, Visit and fall in love there, Go behind for a swim.
Type of Sail: Windsurf sail
Age: 39 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lake of Iraion, Argosaronic Gulf
Distance Travelled: We think hundreds & hundreds of nm
Places most visited: The shores of the above lake, various coasts of the Argosaronic
Sail Number: N/A
Among the things lost with the popularisation of windsurfing has been colorfulness of the first sails produced by windsurfing companies. Film replaced dacron and as cheaper and sturdier material. We gained speed, we lost aesthetic beauty. These very special sails hearken back to a time when beauty and the feelings created by bright colours were more appreciated. Enjoy and remember!
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 7 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Whole Ionian
Distance Travelled: 14000 n.m
Places most visited: Ithaca, Lefkas, Parga, Paxos, Sivota
Sail Number: N/A
During heat waves it's best to wake up early, on a boat and dive in. Let the feeling of the water on your skin make you a better person. By the way, in Elati, a village in the mountains above Trikala in central Greece you will find one of the best cheeses in the world.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
It's funny how you can like names depending on whether you like the first person you met who had that name. Well we like really really like Natalia. Here's to people you love. Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
It's funny how you can like names depending on if you like the first person you met who had that name. Well we like really really like Natalia. Here's to people you love. Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
It's funny how you can like names depending on if you like the first person you met who had that name. Well we like really really like Natalia. Here's to people you love. Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
It's funny how you can like names depending on if you like the first person you met who had that name. Well we like really really like Natalia. Here's to people you love. Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: 10000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: Ithaka, Kefallonia, Meganisi
Sail Number: N/A
It's funny how you can like names depending on if you like the first person you met who had that name. Well we like really really like Natalia. Here's to people you love. Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 14000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: The Sporades island chain, Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Ducats, from where Doukatos might have come were the coins of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, at the time of the age of sail when distances meant leaving your loved ones for months and years. Writing then was a skill one should have and never lose. Pause and think about what skills we had are now lost.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 14000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: The Sporades island chain, Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Ducats, from where Doukatos might have come were the coins of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, at the time of the age of sail when distances meant leaving your loved ones for months and years. Writing then was a skill one should have and never lose. Pause and think about what skills we had are now lost.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 14000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: The Sporades island chain, Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Ducats, from where Doukatos might have come were the coins of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, at the time of the age of sail when distances meant leaving your loved ones for months and years. Writing then was a skill one should have and never lose. Pause and think about what skills we had are now lost.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 14000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: The Sporades island chain, Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Ducats, from where Doukatos might have come were the coins of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, at the time of the age of sail when distances meant leaving your loved ones for months and years. Writing then was a skill one should have and never lose. Pause and think about what skills we had are now lost.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Northern Euboea
Distance Travelled: 14000 nm (or a sailing from Aden in the Red Sea to Colombo in Sri Lanka 5 times)
Places most visited: The Sporades island chain, Skopelos, Skiathos, Alonissos
Sail Number: N/A
Ducats, from where Doukatos might have come were the coins of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years, at the time of the age of sail when distances meant leaving your loved ones for months and years. Writing then was a skill one should have and never lose. Pause and think about what skills we had are now lost.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: At least 8 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled: We think hundreds & hundreds of nm
Places most visited: Corfu, the coves around Sivota and most of the Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: At least 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Corfu
Distance Travelled:
Places most visited: Corfu, Sivota, Ithaki, Lefkas
Sail Number: N/A
A mainsail from our wonderful partners at Sailing Holidays. Every year Sailing Holidays charter out tens and tens of yachts for thousands of holidaymakers who return or explore the Ionian from the yacht base at Marina Gouvia.
Type of Sail: Rolling Genoa
Age: At least 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athenian harbours
Distance Travelled: We think hundreds & hundreds of nm
Places most visited: The Cyclades, the islands of the Argo-Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
Charter yacht sails have a hard and varying working life. Sails working in the Aegean brave the etesian meltemi winds to bring their boats to the picturesque gorgeousness of a sparse hill and translucent waters that the Aegean islands are photographed for. Remember to experience something before you capture it in a photograph. Makes life more interesting.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: At least 25 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Athenian harbors
Distance Travelled: A few thousand miles or a sail from the Lizard to New York and back
Places most visited: The Cyclades, the islands of the Argo-Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
The Kafentzidakis family have been sailmakers for almost half a century. One of the first sails that the founder, and father, sailed was the "Sunrize" mainsail. Designed to be a workhorse of a sail, this piece of well cut sailcloth has would have travelled the equivalent of at least 100 Odysseys worth of travels. A comforting thought, to know such an item.
Type of Sail: Full Batten Mainsail
Age: 7 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Lefkas
Distance Travelled: Over 1000
Places most visited: All over the Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
Mr. M. from Lefkas gave us a sail, a well worn sail that cruised "ALL OVER THE IONIAN". A pretty good life we must say.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Thousands
Places most visited: The northern Ionian and south to Zante (Zakynthos)
Sail Number: N/A
Mrs. S from Sailing Holidays has taken sail reuse to heart. Happy we are that they furnish well travelled Ionian sea washed sails every year. We try to use them well. We hope you enjoy them and we hope you find yourself in the secret Ionian gem of Kastos soon.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 5 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Tourkolimano
Distance Travelled: Hundreds over miles or something like going to Crete from the Piraeus at least 6 times
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic and a the Cyclades as a cruising sail
Sail Number: N/A
One of the most beautiful yachts in this years S.C.Y.R. 2018 is Antara, a beautiful boat from Australia shipped to Spetses to race here.
Cheers to the inspiring story.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 5 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Tourkolimano
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic and a the Cyclades, this was a racing sail
Sail Number: N/A
As often happens this sail was old and ripped by accident by a tired bowman.
This years SCYR will include a gorgeous new sail made in Greece and printed with the animal that the yacht was named after. Check out the sea turtle flying in the Spetses straits atop the hull of Caretta Caretta.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: 2 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Tourkolimano
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic and a the Cyclades, this was a racing sail
Sail Number: N/A
A short lived sail. You can hear how new, if shredded when we received it, it is.
A growing success of the SCYR is how every year the race attracts new entries. Look for the experimental Aegean Classic Schooner "Bastarda" from Bodrum.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: About 8 years old
Material: Spinnaker Nylon
Lived in: Tourkolimano
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic and a the Cyclades, this was a racing sail
Sail Number: N/A
A well worn downwind sail that gave its sailors the keys to the Cyclades for almost a decade.
Slicing downwind with bellying spinnakers in the Spetses straits look for a good two dozen latteen sailed boats fighting it out close to the shores of Spetses. Cheers to the Lateen sail category!
Type of Sail: Mainsail (two) & cruising Genoa (three)
Age: Used for over 7 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Lived in: Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Quite a bit more than 10000 nm, or, a sail from San Francisco to Tokyo and back, and then some
Places most visited: Corfu, the Diapontian islands of Erikousa and Othonoi, the bays around Sivota, Lefkas, Kastos, Meghanisi, Zakynthos and Crete
Sail Number: N/A
For this special project we took the whole wardrobe of a cruising sail located just down the road from our HQ in Marina Gouvia.
A full sail complement from one yacht makes for a collection that has the same feel, that has been almost perfectly uniformly weathered. With well over 10.000 nautical miles sailed this wardrobe has been put to medium to slightly heavy use before being decommissioned. Most of the places visited are boilerplate stunning North Ionian destinations. What stood out was their frequent visits to the Diapontian islands.
These islands form the northeast borders of Greece and are almost unknown, and still, in most places, remain, a pristine view of a Mediterranean before those unsustainable hordes of package deal seekers, overloaded families carrying their rations to establish a daily beachhead on a local spot or mega yacht owners arrived.
We wish you give this sail many more miles before sending it back to us for its next cycle of reuse.
Type of Sail: Asymmetric Spinnaker AP (All Purpose)
Age: Well used for a good 5 years
Material: .75 ounce ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Lived in: Athens, Mounihia harbour a.k.a. Tourkolimano or Mikrolimano
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the islands of Hydra, Syros, Kythos, Tzia (Kea), then the rest of the Cycladic islands
Sail Number: GRE-50
This black sail belonged to a proper yacht racing family, the Modus Vivendi sailing team.
Modus Vivendi - latin for way of life - won three World Championships, more than twenty National Championships and dozens of regional races. After a good three decades bouncing and pounding about on small and medium sized racing yachts the family treated themselves to a cruising yacht by purchasing a Poland built yacht called a Hanse. They named her Modus Vivendi V. She went on to sail for years, either as a mothership, housing the yacht racing team during pit stops on island hopping races, or on well deserved long vacations.
Caring for the future of sailing in Greece the Modus Vivendi owners always took special care to nurture and help bright sailing talent from around the country between the mid nineties and the first decade of the aughts. Several world champions, a good number of old sea-dogs as well as the Rio Olympic Games Bronze Medal winners in the 470 class have trimmed, gybed and packed the sail you now hold.
This was once a sail.
It gave the owners years and years of joy. Now it's a backpack for you to enjoy. Beginning with this joyous note, with this joyous occasion in front of us, we hope you can give this old sail many many more miles.
P.S All the backpacks are put together with accessories picked for their high LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) scores to augment this product's overall sustainability. Some backpacks come with different coloured pocket lining, as we used trimmings from other Modus Vivendi racing sails. A few even have the tell-tales still attached to the sail. The backpacks were lovingly finished and trimmed by a Corfiot Countess who volunteered her time making sure each unique piece is set up, just so.
Salty Bag
This was once a sail
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Α good decade or more
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Mounihia harbour, in the Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Μore than 20000 nm
Places most visited: This sail has been around the Aegean more than an adventurous gull who read Ulyssess and was inspired
Sail Number: GRE-50
The Carter 39 boats are now legendary in these waters for being the first affordable, long lasting cruising boats that were fun to race. One of these boats Oneiro II (Oneiro means Dream in Greek) became a movie. This is a sail that should have credits in the movie.
Type of Sail: Small Genoa
Age: Α good decade or more
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Mounihia harbour, in the Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Μore than 20000 nm
Places most visited: The Aegean, the Cycladic islands the Argo-Saronic Gulfs
Sail Number: N/A
From the looks of it this is a well worn sail that has been around the Aegean too many times. Happy we can give it some more miles and years on shore.
Enjoy!
Type of Sail: Asymmetric Spinnaker AP (All Purpose)
Age: Well used for a good 5 years
Material: .75 ounce ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Lived in: Athens, Mounihia harbour a.k.a. Tourkolimano or Mikrolimano
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the islands of Hydra, Syros, Kythos, Tzia (Kea), then the rest of the Cycladic islands
Sail Number: GRE-50
This black sail belonged to a proper yacht racing family, the Modus Vivendi sailing team.
Modus Vivendi - latin for way of life - won three World Championships, more than twenty National Championships and dozens of regional races. After a good three decades bouncing and pounding about on small and medium sized racing yachts the family treated themselves to a cruising yacht by purchasing a Poland built yacht called a Hanse.
They named her Modus Vivendi V. She went on to sail for years, either as a mothership, housing the yacht racing team during pit stops on island hopping races, or on well deserved long vacations.
Caring for the future of sailing in Greece the Modus Vivendi owners always took special care to nurture and help bright sailing talent from around the country between the mid nineties and the first decade of the aughts. Several world champions, a good number of old sea-dogs as well as the Rio Olympic Games Bronze Medal winners in the 470 class have trimmed, gybed and packed the sail you now hold.
This was once a sail.
Type of Sail: Asymmetric Spinnaker AP (All Purpose)
Age: Well used for a good 5 years
Material: .75 ounce ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Lived in: Athens, Mounihia harbour a.k.a. Tourkolimano or Mikrolimano
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The Piraeus, the islands of Hydra, Syros, Kythos, Tzia (Kea), then the rest of the Cycladic islands
Sail Number: GRE-50
This black sail belonged to a proper yacht racing family, the Modus Vivendi sailing team.
Modus Vivendi - latin for way of life - won three World Championships, more than twenty National Championships and dozens of regional races. After a good three decades bouncing and pounding about on small and medium sized racing yachts the family treated themselves to a cruising yacht by purchasing a Poland built yacht called a Hanse.
They named her Modus Vivendi V. She went on to sail for years, either as a mothership, housing the yacht racing team during pit stops on island hopping races, or on well deserved long vacations.
Caring for the future of sailing in Greece the Modus Vivendi owners always took special care to nurture and help bright sailing talent from around the country between the mid nineties and the first decade of the aughts. Several world champions, a good number of old sea-dogs as well as the Rio Olympic Games Bronze Medal winners in the 470 class have trimmed, gybed and packed the sail you now hold.
#thiswasonceasail
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Around 5 years
Material: Heavy rip - stop Nylon
Lived in: Palaio Faliro harbour, Greece
Distance Travelled: A few hundred miles
Places most visited: The Aegean, the Argo-Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
A racing Spinnaker with a curious on-off sign printed on it. This sail was sponsored by a local telcom company. It turns out this sail can be made into beautiful geometric bags. What a find.
Type of Sail: Jib
Age: About 10 years
Material: Carbon-fibre 3DL
Lived in: Tourkolimano harbour, Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Less than 100 nm
Places most visited: The Saronic Gulf, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
Sail Number: GRE 40
A racing jib from the venerable Farr 40 racing one design. This sail raced in World Championships in Sardinia in the early-mid aughts. She saw action and retired in a sudden 35 knot squall.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: About 3 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 3000 nm
Places most visited: The Ionian sea (at least)
Sail Number: N/A
A reused cruising sail from our longtime partner SailingHolidays we are waiting for the details to come in. Untill then we know that this sail travelled a few thousand miles and sailed the Ionian for a good three years in a cute 36ft cruiser.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: About 3 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 3000 nm
Places most visited: The Ionian sea (at least)
Sail Number: N/A
A reused cruising sail from our longtime partner SailingHolidays we are waiting for the details to come in. Untill then we know that this sail travelled a few thousand miles and sailed the Ionian.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: About 3 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 3000 nm
Places most visited: The Ionian sea (at least)
Sail Number: N/A
A reused cruising sail from our longtime partner SailingHolidays we are waiting for the details to come in. Untill then we can suppose from experience that this sail travelled a few thousand miles and sailed the Ionian extensively.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: About 8 years
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: More than 3000nm
Places most visited: The Aegean and the Argo-Saronic gulfs
Sail Number: N/A
A sail from the venerable Kafentzidakis sail loft, a family-run sail loft that creates memories and beautiful summers for hundreds of sailors for over half a century now.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Should be at least 10 years old
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: More than 3000nm
Places most visited: The Aegean and the Argo-Saronic gulfs
Sail Number: N/A
From a batch of one our first sail deliveries and lost in the depths of our sail locker we found this beautiful sail. From the condition we know it has sailed a long long hard time. We know it came from Piraeus, the harbor of Athens. Where and when is still being researched...
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Should be at least 10 years old
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: More than 3000nm
Places most visited: The Aegean and the Argo-Saronic gulfs
Sail Number: N/A
A gorgeous cobalt-blue spinnaker that probably came from the Atalanti sail loft. This racing team defined sailboat racing in the eastern Mediterranean for a good thirty years. Some of the best yachtsmen of the late twentieth century probably trimmed this sail.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: 5 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Ionian Sea
Distance Travelled: 10000 nautical miles
Places most visited: Corfu, Lefkas, Ithaka, Cephalonia
Sail Number: N/A
A very very very used sail from the yacht Victory from our friend little Spyros in Corfu. Ithaka is a gem, if you find yourself there read the eponymous poem.
Type of Sail: NONE
Age: 0
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Nowhere
Distance Travelled: About 500km, to get to our workshop in Corfu
Places most visited: NONE
Sail Number: N/A
A bolt of rip-stop nylon that was useless to our partners at Kalantzi Sails in Lavrion. It's purple colour goes beautifully with Easter in Corfu. We couldn't resist.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Should be at least 10years old
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: More than 3000nm
Places most visited: The Aegean and the Argo-Saronic gulfs
Sail Number: N/A
From a batch of one our first sail deliveries and lost in the depths of our sail locker we found this beautiful sail. From the condition we know it has sailed a long long hard time. We know it came from Piraeus, the harbor of Athens. Where and when is still being researched...
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Should be at least 10 years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Glyfada
Distance Travelled: We believe many thousands of miles
Places most visited: Crissed crossed the Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
Few boats, well taken care of, when talking about prodcution GRP yachts, can provide a lifetime of memories as a first 38 can. This sail, from this yacht type served enough spring and summers to give its owners a beautiful life at sea. We hope it will now give you the same.
Fair winds.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: A few years old
Material: Dacron
Lived in: Piraeus probably
Distance Travelled: Small distances, from a small sail
Places most visited: The Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
Beautiful hanks attached to this small sail tell us it was used on a small family yacht, probably for day sailing and day racing in the Saronic gulf off Athens.
Fair winds.
Type of Sail: NONE
Age: NOPE
Material: Dacron
Lived in: NONE
Distance Travelled: NONE
Places most visited: NONE
Sail Number: N/A
Huge pieces from a friendly sail loft from what finally became a mainsail, probably. This would have become a cruising sail for heavy duty use in the Aegean. Like you should live the Aegean, full on.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: A few decades old
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus, Sweden, the Balearics, Cowes
Sail Number: E 3131
This is from the yawl IVANHOE a beautiful story of a beautiful sail, heavy with history.
From ClassicYacht.info: Originally named "Havsornen II" (Sea Eagle) for the Olympic medallist Sven Salen he proved her to be a fast ocean racer by winning many regattas.
Ivanhoe first came to the Mediterranean in the sixties when she seduced another Olympic medallist, King Constantine of Greece, who skippered her succesfully in a series of races before returning to northern waters.
In 1991 she has been restored in Belliure of Spain and after a further 10 years went on to be refitted at Gweek Quay of Falmouth, UK in 2002/3. Now (2015) Ivanhoe is coming back to the Mediterranean scene and available for anyone wanting to experience classic sailing.
More info and pictures: here
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: A few decades old
Material: Super light nylon sailcloth
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
A Super light spinnaker that ripped when the wind coughed. A beautiful piece of cloth well used in racing.
From one of the oldest family-owned sail lofts in Greece.
Proud to give it a new home.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: Around eight years old
Material: Hard Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
A sail donated by Kafentzidakis sailmakers from a Beneteau 393 Oceanis a globally recognised workhorse of charter sailing.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: Around eight years old
Material: Lightweight Dacron, polyester sailcloth
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
A sail donated by Kafentzidakis sailmakers from a Beneteau 393 Oceanis a globally recognised workhorse of charter sailing.
Type of Sail: Genoa, most probably
Age: Around eight years old
Material: Polyester Sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
Not much info about this sail, it has an interesting fishbone weave and stitching and looks like it spent all its useful life at sea. We hope we could do the same.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: More than 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
We do not know much about this sail. A beautiful deep blue-Yellow-White sail make for a memorable carrying companion.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: More than 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Probably from a Piraeus sail loft, lost for a few years in the back our sail locker
Sail Number: N/A
Probably from a racing sail from the mid-late eighties to mid-nineties a gorgeous combination of pink and grey makes for a absolutely unique piece.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: More than 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Probably from a Piraeus sail loft, lost for a few years in the back our sail locker
Sail Number: N/A
Deep and bright red mixed with yellow makes this sail when turned into a bag, looking like a perfect springtime flower. Enjoy the beauty of a unique creation.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Over 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
A badly destroyed spinnaker sans its head with a beautiful three colours palette of dark blue, light blue and white. From the venerable and storied Kafentzidakis sail loft one of our long term sail-reuse partners.
Enjoy the sailing and sail close to the shores of Zogheria. Wind is always a knot or more there.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Over 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
A White light spinnaker from the Athens based sail racing scene. Carries the message "ORC GRE 22, 15-5-06, 30-5-2018, HERO" on its head, for those in the know. From the venerable and storied Kafentzidakis sail loft one of our long term sail-reuse partners.
Enjoy the sailing and sail close to the shores of Zogheria. Wind is always a knot or more there.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Over 10 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
One more white & light spinnaker from the Athens based sail racing scene. T13 S10-T2 was written on its head, if that makes any sense. From the venerable and storied Kafentzidakis sail loft one of our long term sail-reuse partners.
Be aware that during summer the current in the strait of Spetses changes direction from West to East, often during early racing hours...
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: At least 5 years old
Material: Rip-Stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
This super-light spinnaker lost its head in a puff. Don't let it fool you it can carry a good 20kg with ease.
Keep in mind that off Spetsopoula, the sea breeze fills in from the Spetsopoula- Trikeri strait, behind the small island of Ai Yiannis Psoras.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: Around eight to twelve years
Material: Super light nylon sailcloth
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: Piraeus and the islands visited by Piraeus based Yacht Club races
Sail Number: N/A
A Super light spinnaker that ripped when the wind coughed. A beautiful piece of cloth well used in racing.
From one of the oldest family-owned sail lofts in Greece.
Proud to give it a new home.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: At least 10 years old
Material: Woven Polyester sailcloth, a.k.a. Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
Sail #91 from the Kafentzidakis sail loft in the Piraeus. These clients used this sail to travel around all around the Aegean, a sea that many lifetimes will not suffice to fully enjoy...
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Age: At least 10 years old
Material: Woven Polyester sailcloth, a.k.a. Dacron
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
Sail #102 from the Kafentzidakis sail loft in the Piraeus. A mainsail that gave plain and rough sailing for many years. We hope you enjoy its next travels.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Age: At least 8 years old
Material: Woven Polyester sailcloth, a.k.a. Dacron
Lived in: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Syvota, the North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
The venerable charter company Sailing Holidays has embraced sail reuse with verve. Samantha always provides us with the previous years decommissioned sails. Cheers for them!
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: At least 20 years old
Material: Woven Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
Probably a sail from the Atalanti sailing team sail locker. This spinnaker redefined world-class sailboat racing in the late 80's in Greece. This sail made some world championship winning sailors.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: At least 15 years old
Material: Woven Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf & the near Cyclades
Sail Number: N/A
A sail from the only Melges 24 to sail in Greece. A fantastically fun boat the Melges 24 gave a good number of club sailors the ride of their life on wintery north wind days while gybing and wiping out on their way to the island of Hydra during the biannual Hydra race.
It was a beautiful sight to see.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Age: At least 10 years old
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Istanbul
Distance Travelled: Hundreds of miles
Places most visited: Istanbul
Sail Number: TUR-1211
If there is one sailing team from Turkey that has become legendary that is Provezza. You are using a light wind spinnaker from the Farr-40 Provezza. Ergin Imre has redefined championship winning in the east Med like few people have. This sail probably raced in the 2012 worlds in Chicago.
Expertly put together by Mrs. Spyridoula and her team #Thiswasonce Provezza's sail. Use it well and don't forget to return it for discounts, or just to challenge us to reuse it once again.
Type of Sail: Code-Zero A3
Years in use: 6
Material: Rip-stop Nylon, Spinnaker sailcloth probably 1oz thickness
Lived in: Athens, in hundreds of Races
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: All around Greece and the Middle Sea Race
Sail Number: GRE 53
This sail was a Quantum A3 spinnaker on board Farr52 "Optimum 3" that exploded after 6 years of service during the 56th Aegean Rally in 2019 at the windy coastal race in Astypalaia. This sail played important role in many Team Optimum victories over its lifespan and allowed "Optimum 3" to reach speeds of over 30 knots.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 10 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Thessaloniki
Distance Travelled: These sails last around 200 nm in the least
Places most visited: Thessaloniki, Athens, Hyeres and Majorca at least
Sail Number: N/A
A sail provided by the Womens 470 team of Rafailina Klonaridou and Maria Bozi. A training sail from the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki that helped them on their way to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 10 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Thessaloniki
Distance Travelled: These sails last around 200 nm in the least
Places most visited: Thessaloniki, Athens, Hyeres and Majorca at least
Sail Number: N/A
A sail provided by the Womens 470 team of Rafailina Klonaridou and Maria Bozi. A training sail from the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki that helped them on their way to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 10 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Thessaloniki
Distance Travelled: These sails last around 200 nm in the least
Places most visited: Thessaloniki, Athens, Hyeres and Majorca at least
Sail Number: N/A
A sail provided by the Womens 470 team of Rafailina Klonaridou and Maria Bozi. A training sail from the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki that helped them on their way to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 10 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Thessaloniki
Distance Travelled: These sails last around 200 nm in the least
Places most visited: Thessaloniki, Athens, Hyeres and Majorca at least
Sail Number: N/A
A sail provided by the Womens 470 team of Rafailina Klonaridou and Maria Bozi. A training sail from the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki that helped them on their way to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 30 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon, Spinnaker sailcloth probably 1oz thickness
Lived in: Athens, in hundreds of Races
Distance Travelled: Thousands of miles
Places most visited: Probably all around Greece
Sail Number: GR-5001
One of the first sails we accepted. After a lot of head scratching and a few hours worth of research we finally found it. This is a spinnaker from the Andromeda an indestructible Oyster 37. Andromeda was a staple of the yacht racing scene from the 70's through the 90's.
Crewed by a rollicking band of music lovers and sailors, every port that she visited during a race would be graced with guitar music till the wee hours. What’s more she was owned by the private sound technician of one of the greatest stars of Greek music, Marinella.
Type of Sail: Finn-Class Olympic Dinghy Mainsail
Years in use: 2015-2019
Material: Carbon-Fibre Plastic mesh
Lived in: Trained heavily in Athens
Distance Travelled: About 50-60 nm
Places most visited: New Zealand and training in Athens
Sail Number: Yiannis sails under GRE-77 (though training sails such as this do not carry national identification numbers)
Designed by North-Sails New Zealand in 2015 exclusively for Yiannis Mitakis this was a development sail that helped pin down the most efficient sail-shape that worked for him. The next batch of race sails based directly on lessons learned from this sail contributed to his qualifying during the Finn Gold Cup (that's what the Finn class calls their World-Championship) for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This sail unlocked the keys to Olympic Participation.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: At least 20 years
Material: Rip-stop Nylon
Lived in: Unknown
Distance Travelled: Unknown
Places most visited: Unknown
Sail Number: N/A
A sail dropped off at our HQ we still don’t know by whom. It was during bright summer day.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Years in use: 2016-1018
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: At least 1980 nm
Places most visited: North from Marina Gouvia to the Diapontian Islands and South to Ithaca
Sail Number: N/A
Sunsail Corfu is run by John Adams who is very keen to make his business more sustainable. From 2019 Salty Bag and Sunsail Corfu will be working together to make a difference and to make Corfu that much better by reusing hundreds and hundreds of square meters of sails from Sunsails fleet of 40 ft Catamarans.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 1990's-2019
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus & Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Over 1000 nm
Places most visited: The Aegean, The Saronic Gulf and Corfu
Sail Number: GRE-39
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team “Rush” dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Reminds us of: What the glam movement of the 70’s must have felt when they first heard the Sex Pistols.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 1990's-2019
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus & Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Over 1000 nm
Places most visited: The Aegean, The Saronic Gulf and Corfu
Sail Number: GRE-39
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team “Rush” dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Reminds us of: What the glam movement of the 70’s must have felt when they first heard the Sex Pistols.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 1990's-2019
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus & Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Over 1000 nm
Places most visited: The Aegean, The Saronic Gulf and Corfu
Sail Number: GRE-39
Starting in the mid-nineties the US sailing team “Rush” dominated offshore sailing in the US, in Florida and the Keys in Winter and on both coasts in the summer. When their Bruce Farr designed 39ft bullet got old they sold it to Greece. She was the first monohull to grace Greek waters that could go faster than the wind and blew out all her competition. This led to a decade long arms-race that saw tens of high-performance sailboats ripping along the Aegean.
Reminds us of: What the glam movement of the 70’s must have felt when they first heard the Sex Pistols.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 1990's-2019
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus & Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 1000 nm
Places most visited: The Aegean, The Saronic Gulf and Corfu
Sail Number: N/A
We don’t know much about this sail. Information about it was lost when we moved. We know we had it around 2014 so it’s probably a racing spinnaker from Athens.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: 2010's
Material: Polyester sailcloth (aka Dacron)
Port: Corfu, Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 2000 nm
Places most visited: Corfu, the northern Ionian islands
Sail Number: N/A
A standard cruising sail, a standby letting you cruise and discover all that you would like the Mediterranean sea to be...
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Early 2000 till 2016
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: Porto Carras (last port)
Distance Travelled: Probably over 1000 nm
Places most visited: The North Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
This light spinnaker was last used in the Offshore Racing Councils’ European Championships which took place in Porto Carras, Halkidiki, Greece in 2016. A difficult race that saw competitors brave unusually strong squalls on the first or second day along with light and really fluky weather for the long offshore coastal racing the race was marred by an Italian crew who spectacularaly cheated during the weigh-in of their boat.
The Nautical Club of Thesalloniki ran these European Championships in a venue that has hosted and amazed sailors from around the world for the last 40 years. As the locals proudly say, there is no home like Halkidiki.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Early 2000 till 2016
Material: Polyester aka Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 3000 nm
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
A well used cruising sail designed to deliver lumbering and quiet slumbering. Well used for over three thousand miles or the distance between New York and the Lizard lighthouse in the UK.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Early 1990’s to early aughts
Material: Polyester aka Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 4000 nm
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
From a big big big big trove of sails from a large charterer that closed shop. This company has thousands of clients who discovered what it is to live the quiet Med life and come back for more every year.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Early 1990’s to early aughts
Material: Polyester aka Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 4000 nm
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
Curiosly this sail was made by Lee sails in Hong Kong but was used for years in the Ionian Sea. From a big big big big trove of sails from a large charterer that closed shop. This company has thousands of clients who discovered what it is to live the quiet Med life and come back for more every year.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Early 1990’s to early aughts
Material: Polyester aka Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Probably over 4000 nm
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
This sail had the cutest tag on it it said "Μαζί μου", With me. What a nice message to start the day...
From a big big big big trove of sails from a large charterer that closed shop. This company has thousands of clients who discovered what it is to live the quiet Med life and come back for more every year.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Probably mid-1980’s to early aughts
Material: Polyester a.k.a Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Looks like a good 10.000 nm went into this sail
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
We fished this sails from the back back corner of our sail locker. This was one of the first sails donated to us back in 2013. Between rummaging around and then moving shop we lost most details about who gave us this sail. We know its from a charter boat of no more than 40 ft that sailed for a good two decades from Marina Gouvia.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 1980's to early aughts
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Looks like a good 10.000 nm went into this sail
Places most visited: Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
The colours are squarely from the 80’s on this spinnaker. It probably went through every race imaginable in the Saronic gulf for a good twenty years before being reused. We hope you enjoy it during its next life.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Years in use: Probably mid-1980's to early aughts
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Looks like a good 20.000 nm went into this sail
Places most visited: Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
The mainsail of West Wind served her well. Enjoy using this powerful sail.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: We believe at least a decade and a half
Material: Dacron
Port: Mounihia harbour, in the Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Tens of thousands of miles
Places most visited: The Aegean, all of it
Sail Number: N/A
Besides fish for breakfast, the Swedish make some of the best boats in the world. Hallberg-Rassy, the Swedish yard have been building boats that can last a lifetime or more. From a 36ft example of this yard came this sail. Here’s to making long-lasting good quality objects that we fall in love with.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Years in use: Probably mid-1980’s to early aughts
Material: Polyester sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Looks like a good 20.000 nm went into this sail
Places most visited: Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: 90's to early aughts
Material: Ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: Nautical Club of Palaio Faliro (N.O.P.F)
Distance Travelled: Quite a few hundred miles have been put into this sail
Places most visited: Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
This was a downwind sail from Echion
Echion was an IMX-38.
IMX-38's are a 38 ft cruiser-racer designed by X-yachts of Denmark that took the Hellenic Yacht Racing scene by storm during the late nineties.
They may look like buckets with a mast today but back then they were as cool as Kurt Kobain's style was.
This sail raced and won tens of regattas of a decade and a half. The boat was named Echion after an old tradition in Greece that holds that you name racing yachts after characters of Greek mythology.
So it was with Echion.
Once more into the wine-dark sea...
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: A good 4 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around one thousand miles
Places most visited: Corfu, Sivota, Paxos, Lefkas
Sail Number: N/A
A Genoa from SailingHolidays probably the largest charterer in the Ionian. This sail has taken families and friends around the Ionian for probably the last half decade.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: A good 10 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: Corfu, Sivota, Paxos, Lefkas
Sail Number: N/A
A Genoa from an almost forgotten sail locker from a venerable charter company that closed shop a decade ago. Rescued from the locker a treasure trove of sailcloth has been made available to remind us of cruising comfortably around the sun-bleached calmness that is most usually the Ionian.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Looks like a hard 4 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around one thousand miles
Places most visited: Corfu, Sivota, Paxos, Lefkas
Sail Number: N/A
A Genoa from SailingHolidays probably the largest charterer in the Ionian. This sail has taken families and friends around the Ionian for probably the last half decade.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: A good 10 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The Aegean Rally, Hydra, the Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
A rather light wind spinnaker optimised for downwind sailing. We only received pieces of it at the bottom of a sail bag. We remember seeing it racing in the Aegean years ago. Transformed from weatherbeaten to weather resistant.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Years in use: A good 10 years
Material: Polyester Sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The Saronic Gulf
Sail Number: N/A
A well used cruising sail. Super well travelled in the Aegean. Now well re-used.
Type of Sail: Mainsail
Years in use: At least 40 years old
Material: Polyester Sailcloth
Port: Piraeus
Distance Travelled: A good 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: Phaleron bay, perhaps a few national championships in Thessaloniki
Sail Number: N/A
A long forgotten International 420 class dinghy mainsail. Probably gave hundreds the kids who sailed it over the past 40 years plenty of thrills.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: A decade
Material: Ripstop Nylon Sailcloth
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The northern Ionian Islands
Sail Number: N/A
A cruiser/racer’s pleasure. A sail that can both carry you calmly to your destination or speedily around a race course “around the cans” as we sailors say.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: A half decade
Material: Polyester sailcloth, a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 2000 nautical miles
Places most visited: The northern Ionian Islands
Sail Number: N/A
From chartering leader Sailing Holidays comes this Genoa off a well used 38ft sailboat. This sail has extensively cruised the Ionian from Lefkas to the northern end of Corfu.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Probably around 20 years
Material: Thich, rich ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2-3 thousand nautical miles
Places most visited: The Argo Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Islands
Sail Number: N/A
From the seventies comes a never before seen combination of red and brown spinnaker. A gem from the 1970’s beautifully reused.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Probably around 20 years
Material: Thich, rich ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2-3 thousand nautical miles
Places most visited: The Argo Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Islands
Sail Number: N/A
Kafentzidakis Sailmakers moved into a new loft and cleared out the deepest recesses of their sail locker to find colourful treasure straight from the 1970's. A haul of old spinnakers in three, four or five colours each have now been put to good reuse. Treasure this unique find, it does the planet good and livens up any dull day.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Probably around 20 years
Material: Thich, rich ripstop nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2-3 thousand nautical miles
Places most visited: The Argo Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Islands
Sail Number: GR-5050
An unusual yet sultry combination of dark blue, sky blue and black from the time that Disco was a new thing.
Kafentzidakis Sailmakers moved into a new loft and cleared out the deepest recesses of their sail locker to find colourful treasure straight from the 1970's. A haul of old spinnakers in three, four or five colours each have now been put to good reuse. Treasure this unique find, it does the planet good and livens up any dull day.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: Probably 10 years
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a. Dacron
Port: Corfu
Distance Travelled: Around 2-3 thousand nautical miles
Places most visited: The North Ionian
Sail Number: N/A
A good, sturdy cruising sail that served a well stocked holiday.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Around 15 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2-3 thousand nautical miles
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Aegean
Sail Number: N/A
A rich red spinnaker with an almost silky texture that belies its age. They don't make them like they did back in 80's.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Around 3 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 200nm
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Aegean
Sail Number: GRE-2004
A kind of sky blue that has become very a la mode lately gives this spinnaker a perfect a perfect new life.
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Around 15 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 200nm
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Aegean
Sail Number: GR-292...
A beautiful orange and black silky-smooth spinnaker with stiched sail numbers. This rare and beautiful combination was raced for a good decade, probably more in the Aegean Sea and Argo-Saronic gulf before it was reborn into a Salty Bag.
Type of Sail: 130% cross-cut Genoa
Years in use: 20
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a
Port: Mediterranean, France, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey
Distance Travelled: "Quite a few miles"
Places most visited: Mediterannean West & East
Sail Number: n/a
A 35 square meter fore-sail for the venerable Contessa 32 “Samurai”. Contessa’s are super-long lasting yachts that create a curiously strong attachment with their owners. “Samurai” went through a thrilling, if you are into knowing the exact temperature for curing resin, refit over three years in northern Greece before providing a years’ worth of comfortable leisure cruising to its happy new owners. Upon reaching Corfu the old sails were turned into what you have in your hands
Type of Sail: Spinnaker
Years in use: Around 15 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: Around 2000nm
Places most visited: The Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Aegean
Sail Number: GR-292...
Kafentzidakis Sailmakers moved into a new loft and cleared out the deepest recesses of their sail locker to find colourful treasure straight from the 1970's. A haul of old spinnakers in three, four or five colours each have now been put to good reuse. Treasure this unique find, it does the planet good and livens up any dull day.
Type of Sail: 130% cross-cut Genoa
Years in use: 20 years at least
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia, Corfu
Distance Travelled: "A few thousands of miles"
Places most visited: The length & breadth of the Ionian Sea
Sail Number: n/a
From a huge sail locker from a firm that closed shop a decade ago comes this sturdy and warm dacron genoa. We know very little about this sail other than it was well used and travelled the Ionian a lot.
Type of Sail: Tallboy Genoa
Years in use: 30 years at least
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a Dacron
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many thousands of miles"
Places most visited: The Essex coast, the Mediterranean and the Aegean
Sail Number: n/a
When sailmakers move shop, sail reusers get deluged. In 2020 Kafentzidakis sailmakers of Piraeus in Greece moved shop and let loose a truckload and a half of sails upon Salty Bag. This sail is from the good boat Incentive which sailed many many a year in the mid 70’s in the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Storm Jib
Years in use: 30 years at least
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a Dacron
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many thousands of miles"
Places most visited: The Essex coast, the Mediterranean and the Aegean
Sail Number: n/a
When sailmakers move shop, sail reusers get deluged. In 2020 Kafentzidakis sailmakers of Piraeus in Greece moved shop and let loose a truckload and a half of sails upon Salty Bag. This sail is from the good boat Incentive which sailed many many a year in the mid 70’s in the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Genoa
Years in use: 30 years at least
Material: Polyester sailcloth a.k.a Dacron
Port: Marina Gouvia
Distance Travelled: "Many thousands of miles"
Places most visited: All of the Ionian sea, and perhaps the Aegean as well.
Sail Number: n/a
From a huge sail locker from a firm that closed shop a decade ago comes this sturdy and warm dacron genoa. We know very little about this sail other than it was well used and travelled the Ionian a lot. This is from the Grand-Soleil 372 “Posidonia”. Naming your boat after the most popular sea-grass in the Med may seem weird, but it’s a quietly powerful plant. It can suck up to 15 times more carbon per square meter than a tree can. Think about that before you drop your anchor next time...
Type of Sail: Shooter Spinnaker
Years in use: Over 20 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many hundreds of miles"
Places most visited: All of the Aegean and the Argo Saronic gulf
Sail Number: GRE-11
A nicely worn Racing Spinnaker nicely coloured, well worn and thoroughly race in Athens and beyond into the blue of the Aegean.
Type of Sail: Heavy Weather Spinnaker
Years in use: Over 40 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many thousands of miles"
Places most visited: All of the Aegean most probably
Sail Number: n/a
When sailmakers move shop, sail reusers get deluged. In 2020 Kafentzidakis sailmakers of Piraeus in Greece moved shop and let loose a truckload and a half of sails upon Salty Bag. This light spinnaker came in Yellow, Red, Blue & sky blue. It looks and feels like the seventies. Enjoy the colour and remember to upcycle your Salty Bag back to us when its done!
Type of Sail: Heavy Weather Spinnaker
Years in use: Over 40 years
Material: Ripstop Nylon sailcloth
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many thousands of miles"
Places most visited: All of the Aegean most probably
Sail Number: n/a
When sailmakers move shop, sail reusers get deluged. In 2020 Kafentzidakis sailmakers of Piraeus in Greece moved shop and let loose a truckload and a half of sails upon Salty Bag. This beauty came in Yellow, Red, Green, Blue & sky blue with all the feel and colour of the Disco era in was built in. Oh that sails are seldom as colourful today! Enjoy the colour and remember to upcycle your Salty Bag back to us when its done!
Type of Sail: Dinghy Racing Mainsail
Years in use: Over 20 years
Material: Polyester Sailcloth aka Dacron
Port: The Piraeus
Distance Travelled: "Many hundreds of miles"
Places most visited: Argo Saronic gulf and various races
Sail Number: GRE-505
A well worn racing sail that created hundreds and hundreds of hours of happiness upon the sea.