Sea has been always very important in my life. Consequently I have been
always interested on boats and especially on sailboats.
After years of using a small kayak I partially owned a motorboat (with three
friends) in 1989. It was a small (6.5 meter long) boat with a single cabin.
After crusing around Bosphorus for afew years we bought a new boat, this time
a sailboat, named Zeynep. It was 8.5 meters long with three cabins, a kitchen and
a toilet... Thereafter I have got familiar with sailing...
Unfortunately our partnership with Zeynep was too short. At her first long voyage outside Istanbul (to Canakkale) as a result of faulty anchoring and an unexpected storm she has been crashed onto the rocks.
You can see the condition of Zeynep just after the first stormy night. At the end of the third day the only undamaged part was its engine. A positive result of Zeynep's crash is that we realised that we do not know sea well enough and attended a course on seamenship and sailing. And now, all four of us have valid amateur seamenship certificates.
The virus from Zeynep resulted in my sailing fanaticism. Which in turn pushed me into a sailboat racing team.
Since 1992 I have been racing as a member of the same team. We have attended the Istanbul races with several boats such as AKYAR, AKYAR II, and CADI. Some of the pictures from these races can be found below.
During 1991 and 1992 we raced with AKYAR. It is owned by my dear friend Cengiz Kiziltan. At the left hand side you can see a photograph from a race with AKYAR.
For more pictures related to a race around Istanbul at 1992 please click on the picture.
After selling AKYAR, Cengiz bought a new sailboat (Oceanis 350) and named
her as AKYAR II. We have attended to several races with that yatch either.
At the right hand side you can see a photograph from the race Navy Cup - 1995. For more pictures from this race please click on the picture.
Any text which is about Turkey and sailing should also mention the
well known blue voyage. Sailing tours at the western coasts
of Turkey where the tourists stay at small and beautiful creeks of
Aegean Sea.
At the left, you can see the picture of the sailboat in anchor at Manastir Creek, which is one of the most beautiful creeks of the Fethiye Bay area.
For more photographs from the blue voyage during spring 1995 please click on the picture.