Is There
Life after Rallying?
I suppose the thought must have occurred to
most active sportsmen (and women) in all forms of recreational sport – what will
I do for fun when I can no longer drive/fly/play tennis/scuba-dive etc? How
will I fill those long hours currently spent preparing the rally car, driving
to-and-from events; competing and fixing the thing afterwards? Many in such
position slip into the administrative role within their sport or become active
marshals or take up golf. However, a long time ago I discovered another
passion which I could only enjoy occasionally while I was still rallying and
that was sailing – yachts not dingys or tea-trays with sails. I decided about
ten years ago that when the time was ripe I was going to go to a warm country
with lots of sea where I could have a decent boat and spend a great part of my
remaining years exploring the coasts and seas of tropical islands, warm-water
ports and historic harbours. To travel at will over 4/5ths of the
earth’s surface is one of the last great freedoms left in this over-regulated
world and I wanted to experience that life. Of course, unless one is
independently wealthy one cannot simply give up everything and set off into the
sunset; I had still to earn an income while still enjoying the sort of
life-style I had been planning.
Fortunately, my means of making a living have
become very adaptable in recent years as the technology of the internet advanced
dramatically and now I can do my work from practically anywhere I can get an
internet connection. With all these things in mind I spent part of the last ten
years looking for a suitable place to fulfil this dream and a few years ago I
decided that it would be hard to beat Croatia. For those who don’t know this
surprising country, I can tell you it has a lot going for it. It has,
undoubtedly, the finest coastline in the whole Mediterranean with clear blue
water, thousands of islands from a few metres across to islands the size of
small countries, decent wine and food and a reasonable standard of living. It
has amazing weather with hot summers refreshed by cool breezes, early spring and
a long autumn when the tourists have all gone home. These are the best times –
especially the autumn. The sea remains warm and swimable until well into
October. If I go on like this any more, they’ll give me a job at the tourist
board!
So
about a year ago Agi and I decided it was time to put Operation Sails in the
Sunset into action and we came here to look for somewhere which fitted our
various requirements. In spite of what you hear on TV the so-called property
boom is quite limited because not many of the locals actually want to sell any
of their houses. The majority of foreign incomers are buying new-build
apartments in Marbella-style ghettos near the towns. This means that if you can
actually find a house to buy the prices are certainly not cheap but the rewards
are great. Ours is a three floor building divided into two large apartments and
a cellar, built on a slope of about 45 degrees with three gard
en terraces making
up the 500 square metres of land which came with the house. We are about 75
feet above sea level and we can look straight into the small harbour from our
balcony and the
views up and down the coast are stunning as is the sight of the island of Brac
about 8 km away straight across the water. All this beauty has one
drawback, however; we have no road access to the property. We need to park
the car at the bottom of the slope and climb 102 steps up to reach our castle
and, of course, 102 steps down when we want to go anywhere! From the
bottom of the steps it is about a three minute walk to any of five small beaches
each with a different character. Some have rocky outcrops which are great
for snorkelling while others are smooth gravely stretches for sunbathing and
swimming. I will send Malcolm a few photos of the house and surrounds and
he can put them on the web-site if he thinks they are interesting enough.
We are now in the process of settling in; it
takes time to find out how to get a telephone connected; open a bank account;
buy some essential furniture and generally become part of a new community – and
all in Croatian of course! Actually its not as bad as we might have expected.
Anyone under about 30 speaks pretty competent English thanks to Hollywood and
Bill Gates (just think of what would have happened had Microsoft been started
by say a Pole?) and so far we have had nothing but friendly help and welcome.
We have now been here just three weeks and I
have not yet acquired the main object of the move i.e. the yacht but we have
been busy looking. I think the equivalent of kicking tyres when buying a rally
car when you are looking at yachts is to walk around it grabbing things to
ensure they are securely attached, poke around in all the lockers looking for
leaks and gun the engine a bit. We’ve seen a few nice ones but there are plenty
still to see. I have an idea that prices might come down towards the end of the
season as potential buyers head for home and sellers face six months without any
enquiries so we’ll just keep looking for a while longer. We can always hire for
a weekend or so just to keep our hand in.
I mentioned that our house comprises two
apartments and we are living in the lower, slightly larger one. Our plan is to
prepare the upper flat in time to offer it for rent next summer as a luxury
apartment with three bed-rooms (for up to six people) and to be able to have
lots of friends to stay outside the main season when the only rent will be a
bottle of wine per day!
Probably our next visit to UK will be at the
end of September because the progress on our new High Wycombe flat is rather
slow and, until that is ready, we have nowhere to live in UK – but that is no
hardship for the present. So, in the meantime, please accept my apologies for a
few missed Council meetings and we hope to see everyone again in time for the
Hunters Night Trial (probably).
Tom Ryan - 18th July 2006
So
about a year ago Agi and I decided it was time to put Operation Sails in the
Sunset into action and we came here to look for somewhere which fitted our
various requirements. In spite of what you hear on TV the so-called property
boom is quite limited because not many of the locals actually want to sell any
of their houses. The majority of foreign incomers are buying new-build
apartments in Marbella-style ghettos near the towns. This means that if you can
actually find a house to buy the prices are certainly not cheap but the rewards
are great. Ours is a three floor building divided into two large apartments and
a cellar, built on a slope of about 45 degrees with three gard
en terraces making
up the 500 square metres of land which came with the house. We are about 75
feet above sea level and we can look straight into the small harbour from our
balcony and the
views up and down the coast are stunning as is the sight of the island of Brac
about 8 km away straight across the water. All this beauty has one
drawback, however; we have no road access to the property. We need to park
the car at the bottom of the slope and climb 102 steps up to reach our castle
and, of course, 102 steps down when we want to go anywhere! From the
bottom of the steps it is about a three minute walk to any of five small beaches
each with a different character. Some have rocky outcrops which are great
for snorkelling while others are smooth gravely stretches for sunbathing and
swimming. I will send Malcolm a few photos of the house and surrounds and
he can put them on the web-site if he thinks they are interesting enough.