There is nothing better than a friend with a boat

Ricardo started sailing when he was a kid, tagging along with adults on their trips in the Ilhabela Channel in Brazil, where he spent his school vacations.

In 1990, when he was 14, Ricardo got his first boat: a Holder 12, a 12 ft single-person dinghy. There, he learned the basics of sailing and quickly moved up the ranks, placing 3rd in the Brazilian annual class ranking in 1992 and taking the championship in 1993.

In 1993, Ricardo moved up to sailing a 470 – an Olympic class at the time – and raced it for about three years (1994 to 1996). During those years, he also started sailing more often as crew on larger boats in multiple regattas around Brazil.

By 19, Ricardo had shifted his main focus to windsurfing, while still joining selected regattas as crew on bigger boats.

In 1998, Ricardo became the non-professional São Paulo State Slalom Windsurf champion.

A few years later, Ricardo became a key member of Optmystic, a boat he sailed on for many years with his friend Captain Fernando. That’s when Ale joined the crew and started racing in multiple regattas, quickly learning the ins and outs of ocean sailing and some of the most prestigious events in Brazil – especially the Rolex Ilhabela Sailing Week, which they raced together several times.

In 2008, Ricardo and Ale welcomed their first child and soon after moved to Virginia, in the US. Sailing became trickier to fit into everyday life, which led to a break of several years – with only a few windsurfing days each year – until 2017, when they decided to get the kids into sailing and chartered a boat for a weekend on the Chesapeake Bay.

That’s when their family sailing story really started to take shape.

A few more years passed, with occasional sailing days here and there, until a Sunday night in April 2023. While having drinks at a neighbor’s house, Ricardo mentioned that it would be amazing to spend a week sailing in the BVI – and that it costs less than most people imagine. Jeff, not realizing just how serious Ricardo was, replied:

“If that’s the price and you can sail the boat, I’ll pay for it.” Well… challenge accepted!

The very next morning, Ricardo had already found the boat. The cost wasn’t exactly what they had first talked about, so the original plan needed a few tweaks, but before anyone knew it, the first trip to the BVI was booked.

After that, another trip to the BVI was booked for 2025 – and a big one to Croatia in 2025 as well.

For Croatia, experience alone wasn’t enough – a license was required. That’s when Ricardo decided to get his SCL License, which lets him book bareboat charters pretty much anywhere in the world.