Fictional concept — VELA 07 is not a real charter house
A house of three chartered boats, two seas and one rule: we leave when the wind says so, not when the brochure does.
CH. 01 — THE ANCHORAGE
You wake up here.
That is the whole product: not a boat, but the twelve hours between the last day-tripper leaving and the first one arriving. Which means anchoring where there is no quay, and moving overnight when the forecast says to.
Two of these bays have no road to them at all, and none has a pontoon. That is why we go, and why the boat has to lie to her own anchor in a blow.
ANCHOR WATCH IS THE CREW’S JOB, EVERY NIGHT.
Prices are for the whole boat with her crew aboard, Saturday to Saturday. We do not sell cabins, and we have never once run a charter with a skipper who had not sailed that hull the season before.
ALL THREE LIE IN SPLIT AND WINTER IN THE SAME SHED. THE WEEK BOATS ARE SURVEYED EVERY MARCH.
№01 — ONE-DESIGN KEELBOAT
FROM €680 / DAY
WHOLE BOAT, ONE SKIPPER, 09:00 TO SUNSET.
The afternoon boat, and the one we learn people on. No cabins, nothing below but a bag and a bottle of water — you sail her hard for six hours and you are back on the quay for dinner.
№02 — CLASSIC SLOOP
FROM €9,400 / WEEK
WHOLE BOAT, TWO CREW, SATURDAY TO SATURDAY.
In the photograph she is doing the thing she is for: lying to one anchor in a bay with nobody in it. She reads the long swell the way older hulls do, without hurry, and she is the boat for people who want to sail rather than be driven somewhere.
№03 — EXPEDITION KETCH
FROM €14,800 / WEEK
WHOLE BOAT, TWO CREW, ALL SIX BERTHS, SATURDAY TO SATURDAY.
For the coves the charts barely name. This is her deck on the second morning of a Meltemi crossing: two masts, everything varnished, everything worked by hand — which is how we shorten sail at four in the morning without waking anybody.
PRICES ARE PER BOAT, NOT PER PERSON
MISTRAL · 7 M · 4 GUESTS
FROM €680 / DAY
TRAMONTANA · 11 M · 4 GUESTS
FROM €9,400 / WK
LEVANTE · 15 M · 6 GUESTS
FROM €14,800 / WK
Two crew, six guests, and a day that has already begun by the time you decide to be part of it.
It is a crewed passage — provisioned before you board, navigated while you sleep, and timed to the hour the light turns. Here is a real Tuesday from last August, off the boat's own day sheet.
DAY SHEET — TUESDAY, LEVANTE, OFF VIS
A published route is where we intend to be, not where we promise to be. The captain moves it for weather, for a swell that would spoil an anchorage, and occasionally because somebody on the quay in Vis told him something. The distances below are what we actually sail.
ROUTE PRICES ARE FOR LEVANTE, THE WHOLE BOAT, BOTH CREW ABOARD. TRAMONTANA SAILS THE SAME ROUTES FOR ROUGHLY A THIRD LESS.
FROM €14,800
The one everybody books first, and the one we would still book. Long reaching legs, a night in Vis that ruins other harbours for you, and enough shelter to move the whole week around a forecast without losing a day.
LEG 01 · NIGHT 1
SPLIT → MILNA
12 NM
LEG 02 · NIGHT 2
MILNA → VIS
24 NM
LEG 03 · NIGHT 3
VIS → BIŠEVO
18 NM
LEG 04 · NIGHT 4
BIŠEVO → HVAR
22 NM
LEG 05 · NIGHTS 5–6
HVAR → KORČULA
32 NM
LEG 06 · NIGHT 7
KORČULA → SPLIT
57 NM
FROM €21,400
This one is not a holiday, it is a passage. The meltemi blows 25 to 35 knots for days and we sail in it deliberately. Two of the ten nights are likely to be spent at anchor, waiting. Book it only if that sounded good.
LEG 01 · NIGHTS 1–2
PAROS → NAXOS
18 NM
LEG 02 · NIGHT 3
NAXOS → KOUFONISIA
22 NM
LEG 03 · NIGHTS 4–5
KOUFONISIA → AMORGOS
26 NM
LEG 04 · NIGHTS 6–7
AMORGOS → ASTYPALEA
34 NM
LEG 05 · NIGHT 8
ASTYPALEA → KOS
62 NM
LEG 06 · NIGHTS 9–10
KOS → BODRUM
78 NM
Every week sails with a captain and a mate. They provision the boat before you land, they stand the anchor watch you sleep through, and they cook one meal a day. They are also why the route moves: the person choosing where you spend Thursday night is the person who has to lie there.
LOGBOOK — TRAMONTANA · 3 SEPTEMBER
“He handed me the helm off Vis and went below to make coffee.”
I sail a thirty-footer on the Columbia and I turned up ready to be babysat for a week. Instead Duje handed me the helm off Vis and went below to make coffee. That is the whole review.
ONE-SHEET 01LEVANTE · WEEK OF 8 JUNE
VELA●07 — PRESS
“He rerouted us twice around a bora we never once felt.”
We booked early on purpose — our anniversary, right at the top of the season, when half the coast is still shuttered. Ivo rerouted us twice around a bora we never actually felt, and we ended up in a bay off Šolta with one other boat in it.
01 / 01
WRITTEN FOR THIS CONCEPT — NOT A REAL GUEST
Where she lies, when she leaves, who picks up the telephone, and what it takes to put your name against a week.
A movement order is the single sheet a production hands out so nobody has to ask where to be. This is ours: the door, the hours somebody is behind the desk, a number that rings, and the weeks still open.
● CHARTER ENQUIRY — WE ANSWER INSIDE ONE WORKING DAY
UPDATED EVERY MONDAY, 09:00
A WEEK GOES ON HOLD FOR FIVE DAYS FOR NOTHING. THIRTY PER CENT CONFIRMS IT, THE BALANCE IS DUE FORTY-FIVE DAYS BEFORE YOU BOARD, AND MOVING A BOOKING ONCE — MORE THAN SIXTY DAYS OUT — COSTS NOTHING AT ALL.
N.01 — DO WE NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SAIL?
No. Every week runs with a captain and a mate aboard, and plenty of our guests never touch a winch. If you do want to sail her, say so when you book.
N.02 — WHERE AND WHEN DO WE JOIN HER?
Lazareta quay in Split, 16:00 on the Saturday, twenty-five minutes from the airport. You step off at 09:00 the following Saturday, and we meet the afternoon arrivals ourselves.
