28 February 2009   12:02.42N   61:44.48W

The Boat

Milano Blanco is an F&C 44, a centreboard ketch designed by German Frers and built by Frers & Cibils in Buenos Aires in 1981. Some 57 of these yachts were built, a small number were either fixed keel or sloops. I’m biased, but they are seaworthy, fast, well ballasted, beautiful and will hopefully get you off a lee shore in bad weather – something you can’t say about a lot of comfy recent yachts. The previous owner had kept her in the Caribbean for 13 years, most recently at St Georges, Grenada. I went to see her there in February 2009 and we struck a deal. This was a dream come true for me as although I had sailed whenever invited for a weekend or so, my main sailing recently had been racing Dog Woof, an Albacore dinghy, with my eldest son Robbie.