Venezia by Sea

Crews Letter #2004 11 Venezia by Sea

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

In the last two weeks of July, three years after Perception was commissioned, she returned to Slovenia for some repairs. Elan has moved their shop from Koper to Izola. Slovenia has only 25 miles of coastline, but that 25 miles has four marinas for yachts and two commercial ports. The Elan boatyard is still a hundred plus miles inland at Begunja in the Alps.

The After Sale staff is new faces, same high skill level and a better than previous commitment to schedule. The previous manager of the After Sale team was on-hand. His technical knowledge of the boat is wonderful.

Elan no longer builds the 45. They have introduced a 43 that is more cruiser than racer. It has replaced the 45 as the largest boat in their line. In 2001, there was a 52 in the plan. Probably, never to be. There were 76 or 77 45’s built. And we own more than 1% of them.

From Slovenia, we sailed to Trieste and there we met Chrissanthi and Stavros for our Cruise to Venezia. Stavros was in the process of taking delivery of his Thealos, a Bavaria 40, at the same time Fred was watching the commissioning of Perception at Koper in 2001. They put his boat in the water twice to discover leaks in the hull around the sail drive. Needless to say, he was not happy. Stavros and Fred developed a friendship as they commiserated over the pains and arrows of a new boat. At some point in the process, Stavros said that when Perception gets to Corfu, call me and we will take care of you. The “we” is Chrissanthi. Chrissanthi is the managing director of Yacht-Land by Cross Eagle, a charter company that has a base in Corfu. They live in Athens. We called from Corfu. They took care of us. They are dear friends.

From Trieste, we sailed in three days to Venezia. << That’s Venice the way the people who live there spell and say it. >> There we stayed in a sailing club harbor on the island San Giorgio Maggorie which is directly across the canal from Piazza San Marcos. It is a 2-minute vaporetta ride across the canal. What a wonderful city! To make it all work, the vaporetta, water buses, are inexpensive, frequent and fast. It is a theme park for adults. It is a museum of museums. It has history, art, fashion, food and romance. Even Fred had some romantic moments. Hard to believe, an old curmudgeon like him is not immune to Venezia.

We are putting together a gallery at Venezia . Meanwhile checkout San Giorgio Sailing Club Harbour or some pictures at http://www.egm.it/comuni/venezia.html

That’s the Sailing Club Harbor in the upper right-hand corner.

If you are considering a Greek charter, seriously consider Yacht-Land by Cross Eagle. Tell Chrissanthi Toubaniari that you are our friend and let her take care of your charter needs in Greece. Find her at http://www.yacht-land.gr

Ease the sheet, please,

Phyl & Fred

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