This'll Float Your Boat

AS SEEN IN SANTA BARBARA MAGAZINE
August/September 2003

TIRED OF BUMPING INTO THE SAME old yachts while plying the Aegean?

Instead, play the pampered rock star in our own azure waters with a posh, several-days-long, Mediterranean-style sailing holiday in the Santa Barbara Channel. Several local outfits can set you and your friends up in style with a crewed yacht while you stop at scantily visited isles with secluded, pebbly beaches, and enjoy superb meals.

For your utmost hedonistic pleasure the Santa Barbara Sailing Center recently launched personalized gourmet sailing trips on cozy yachts of 32 to 50 feet. Picture chef Charles Fredericks, recently of Bouchon, at the on-deck grill asking you how you want your juicy Black Angus steak. Or Sage & Onion’s chef/owner Steven Giles in starched jacket and toque in the rocking galley as he whips up some haute cuisine.

The Sailing Center’s luxury trips are the vision of SBSC owner Skip Abed who, as an impressionable teen, sailed with his family through the Greek Isles on a chartered 61- foot ketch with a captain, cook and first mate.

Trips are customizable, from a day or two to however long, and meals created to your specifications by a top local chef. Drop anchor at will knowing you have your own ‘floating hotel room’ to snuggle in to for the night.

Another option is to cruise the coastline by day and wrap up with a dockside soirée catered by your own gastronome in the galley. Either way, you’re bound to be swept away.

For more information, call SBSC at (805) 962-2826 or visit www.sbsail.com – BETSY CROWFOOT