Growing Up by the Bosphorus
Growing up by the Bosphorus, I was captivated by the daily movement of hundreds of boats crossing between two continents or venturing from the Black Sea to the oceans and back. My bay, a perfect natural harbour inhabited for over 2,000 years, was home to families who lived as fishermen, captains, boatbuilders, and dockworkers for generations. I was fascinated by them and, whilst watching their continuous struggle with the sea, I aimed to learn those hundreds of skills and became a 'real seaman' like my masters.
From a young age, I devoured books about the sea, starting with Turkish pioneer Sadun Boro's journal of his historic circumnavigation between 1965-1968. My vision of sailing around the world myself fueled even further as I learnt English, German, and French and read about other sailing heroes, such as Bernard Moitessier and Robin Knox-Johnston.
At that time, there were no sailing clubs or schools in the Bosphorus; we had to start building our boats and trying to learn how to sail on our own by watching fishermen and the very few amateur sailors.
Timeline of Sailing Adventures
1970 – At 9 years of age tried to build small sailing dinghies with three years older brother Feyyaz in a house on the hills far away from the sea, before our family moved to Bosphorus.
1973 – Built another, revised and larger version of the same dinghy, sailed in Northern Aegean.
1974 – Installed a 4 meter mast with lateen sail in the 5 meter wooden fishing 'kayik' of our family – 'Sev'.
1975 – Started competitive rowing, gave a break to sailing, became an elite sculler, and later a coach
1988 – Purchased and restored Snapper (similar to more famous Shield) Class 31 feet wooden racing sloop 'Forsa', which was built in 1965 in my village, I sailed mostly in Bosphorus without engine despite of the currents and dense shipping, broke my first mast.
1992 – Purchased Bruce Roberts 28 feet steel sloop 'Ada', sailed extensively in Marmara and Aegean Seas, broke my second mast in the strong 'Meltemi' of the Aegean Sea.
1996 – Purchased Gary Mull designed Pala 37 grp sloop 'Anka' (built in 1984) sailed extensively in the Marmara & Aegean Seas after major (self done) refit, transported new mast from Istanbul to Bodrum for 'Ada'
1999 – Rerigged Nadire's Folkeboat'Badem' and sailed in Marmara Sea
2006 – Purchased my firstever brand new sailboat: an Elan Impression 434 grp sloop 'Ekip', sailed extensively in the Adriatic and Aegean Seas with our three children
2012 – Ordered an Alubat Ovni 445 cutter 'Keyif' from Sables d'Olonne, crossed Europe on rivers and canals from the Channel to the Black Sea, then sailed six years around the world with partner Nadire, later sailed four times from Istanbul to Caribbean and back, still living and sailing on this boat…
Besides these sailing boats I had a series of windsurfs (1982 - 2012), a HobieCat 17s (1997-2012), a KiteSurf (2003) and recently a WingFoil.
