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Student Matt Peterson charting a course with guidance from Canary Sail skipper Bart Pi ntelon.
When his friends told him
they wanted to buy a 60-foot
catamaran and sail the
Mediterranean during the
summers, he signed on to be
their skipper.
But first the 42-year-old
Peterson - who’d only piloted
a dinghy during a summer
camp - had to learn how to
sail.
“I contacted several
schools in the Canaries and
received no responses,” he
said. “But Jim got back to me
right away and put together
a plan that will get me quali-
fied by this summer. I figure
all totaled, this will cost me
around something north of
$15,000. But it will be money
very well spent if I end up be-
ing competent and confident
enough to skipper a big cata-
maran.”
The plan, he said, is to sail
the big, two-hulled vessel for
several years in the Med - as
sailors call the Mediterranean
- to ports in Spain, France,
Italy and Croatia and then
That can take around 15 weeks, Grey take it to New Zealand and Australia via
said, and includes not only instruction, but the Caribbean, Panama Canal and Hawaii
a minimum of 2,500 sea miles sailed in the for more adventures.
islands. Peterson said he was pleased as punch
Matt Peterson, a former St. Louis resi- with his Canary Sail experience and his in-
dent who now lives in Barcelona, was going structors. His advice to would-be students:
that route. He’d already been in the Ca- Thoroughly study the theory section of
naries for nine weeks when we sailed to- their coursework before they arrive.
gether on the Alphados. A general building “I’ve learned a ton so far,” said Peter-
contractor in the U.S., he’d visited Spain son, who returned to chilly weather in Mis-
several times after friends moved to souri for around a month in March to tend
Barcelona. to his business.
He liked it so much that he decided to “But I miss those islands and can’t wait
relocate and - thanks to a trusted manager to get back,” he told me then.
in St. Louis - run his business from abroad Grey said the conditions year-round in
with occasional visits back to Missouri. the Canaries are ideal for teaching sailing,
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