Bulgari X-Yachts Adriatic Cup 2004The editors asked Enrico Bossan, owner of “Alia” X-362 Sport, why he is participating in the X-Yachts Cup in Venice year after year. He sent us his story: I suffered a “speed illness”
I began longing for a yacht in October 2001 after my “speed sickness”. I had five seasons of rubber boating behind me at the time. I had been to Sicily, Sardinia, Croatia, Elba Island and even on a few lakes. The rubber boat represented to me the freedom of changing places when navigating, the certainty of reaching quickly the sought destination. “If I wished to get to a secluded cove, a little beach, the rubber boat can take me there in minutes, because the engine was powerful and could conquer the waves and wind”.
Life is too short to let it fly by
I remember in 2001, I was in Croatia’s Koronati Islands when I first had a glimpse of the oncoming crisis. I was coasting, when I suddenly felt a deep sense of uneasiness, a rejection of the speed of my rubber boat. I was watching the scenery fly by in a blaze, and I named my feeling as the “rejection of the engine”. The velocity and precision of my navigation was depriving me of the pleasure of traveling.
I am a photo reporter, and I have traveled extensively over all the five continents. I believe that the motor boat, on that holiday, had struck my deeply felt need to travel slowly, to avoid making a simple displacement out of a pleasure trip. I then put the blame on the boat. With a rubber boat, the priority is set on reaching destination, but as I always thought when photographing, knowing why and how you are going is much more important than that. My best photographs are those that cost me endless hours of walking, and shoe pairs.
What was the cure?
“Maybe a sailing boat is the solution”, I thought. Great loves in life tend to surface all of a sudden, and never in bits and pieces. I had no sailing experience, and that worried me a little, but as it has happened in several times in my life, I had a feeling I would love it. 
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X-Yachts’ medicine
On a miserable, foggy day; typical of our flatlands and low coastlines, I convinced myself to test sail an X-Yacht. It was not the best of approaches; the sky was slate grey and totally windless, at least from what I could tell. But once out of the harbor, the sails hoisted, the boat set her pace, unexpectedly in the lightest breeze. It was exciting. Surrounded by the haze, with the scenery slowly changing its shape and color, we sailed in silence, tearing the air apart without a sound. I asked Franco: “Where are we now?” Actually, we had only traced a couple of legs out of the harbor, but I already had the proof that my intuition was correct.
From that day on, every time I left the harbor in a sailing boat I never set a mandatory destination. Paradoxically, I believe it’s possible to sail endlessly without leaving the home waters, because the most important thing is being in tune with the act of sailing itself.
X-Yachts Adriatic Cup in Venice
Purchasing an X-Yacht, offered me the opportunity to take part in a sailing race for the first time, which happened in the X-Yachts Adriatic Cup, hosted by Franco Corazza in Venice. In June 2002 I still was a rookie, my boat was only one month old, but I was curious to try. The most exciting thing at the time was racing in such a peculiar stretch of water as the Lido di Venezia, with the opportunity of admiring Hotel Excelsior and its arabesque architecture from a distance, I naturally imagined movie stars on their stage walk. Being in such a special place, with forty other boats built by the same boatyard was quite impressive for a beginner like me.
Like actors on a stage
I returned to the race course there in 2003 and 2004. This year the regatta achieved a remarkable maturity and elegance; it was perfectly organized, both technically and “artistically”. Entering the old Arsenale basin, in the heart of Venice, was a unique experience for everybody. Sailing through her in a fleet was reminiscent to the history of this wonderful city, something which is not common to see or feel while walking the narrow alleys as tourists do. Especially on the second day, when adverse conditions meant there was no racing. We sailed inshore in the San Marco basin, with our spinnakers flying. We were made the actors on a stage where the city itself was the marvelous background. A timeless Venice, where the engines are silenced and an assortment of boats cruise the channels.
There is a nostalgic aspect in this all. On Sunday evening, when leaving Venice’s skyline behind to reach our home ports, our heart sunk. It is not easy to leave these waters which we have been so privileged to sail in. But then we think: “We will be back next year”.
Enrico Bossan
X-362 Sport “Alia”
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