
HEY, I’M JAKOB

Hey, my name is Jakob. I’m from Austria, a beautiful country in the heart of Europe.
I’ve always been fascinated by sailing. It all started when I was 6, thanks to my dad. He used to sail a Hobby Cat 16 when he was young. Every summer, my family and I would go to a small Croatian island with a tiny harbor and just one pier. I’d spend hours on that pier, watching the sailing boats moored there. I couldn’t help but dream of being out on the open ocean, exploring what lay beyond the horizon. Those evenings strolling through that little harbor were probably the beginning of my love for ocean sailing.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN

So, you’d rather say Austria boasts beautiful mountains and landscapes, but when it comes to ocean sailing, that’s definitely not a sport Austrians typically engage in. We don’t even have any direct connection to the ocean, despite having some stunning lakes. So, how does someone from a country that has little sailing experience get involved in that sport?
It all began when I was born, a rather unexpected revelation, I suppose. In fact, its roots can be traced even further back. When my grandparents were in their youth, they owned a small, sporty catamaran called a Hobie Cat 16. This two-hull boat was incredibly fast and agile, and they used it to sail in the Adriatic Sea and on lakes in Austria. The sailing experience they had with that little boat ignited a passion for sailing within them, and it was passed down to my dad when he was born. As a young child, he would restlessly sail alone along the coast in that Hobie Cat, unperturbed by the strong winds that would blow. If the boat capsized, he would simply turn it around and continue sailing.
Decades later, I was born. My parents frequently took me into the mountains, which I still love to explore to this day. My dad would often talk about sailing and explain various sailing-related concepts to me. When I was young, my grandparents would often take me on vacation to the Adriatic Sea. I vividly remember walking through yacht harbors with them for hours on end, unable to stop gazing at all the different types of sailboats.


Once my parents and I were on vacation on a small Croatian island. It was shortly after sunset and getting dark. I was walking along the pier where the few sailing boats that visited the island were moored when an Austrian sailor approached me and asked if I wanted to see his boat from the inside since I was staring at it for at least ten minutes. Of course, I couldn’t say no and was overwhelmed when he walked me through it and explained how everything worked. I was 7 at that time.
Back home, we had a large lake where sailing was practiced. Not long after, I enrolled in a kids’ sailing class and received a small sailing certificate. It wasn’t an official license, but rather a motivational tool to encourage children to sail. Unlike others, I didn’t begin with an Optimist, a small sailboat specifically designed for kids, but I soon found myself on the water with my dad in a sloop-rigged dinghy and later on a Hobie 16. And I loved it!
Unfortunately, when school began, I gradually drifted away from sailing. Years later, I stumbled upon a book I had read when I was eight, though I barely comprehended it at the time. I somehow rediscovered it, and that was the final catalyst that ignited my passion for ocean sailing. From that moment on, I was utterly consumed by it.
