The skipper of FG43 #1 speaks his mind

Timo Kotilainen This is like a six months honeymoon, waiting for your new bride to get her shape and see her freeing herself from the moulds. Soon she will stretch out, open up the sails and slide into the bright summer day. The more I spend time thinking of her, the more convinced I am she is the right yacht for me, and I try to live up to her expectations as well; to treat her well and reach new fantastic experiences possible only because of her fantastic features. Seriously speaking, the current period of planning and suspense is one of the most enjoyable phases when it comes to owning a boat, especially when that boat is something as unique as the new FG43. The boat is an unrivalled cocktail of elegance, quality and performance. It will be a real performance yacht with plenty of sail area and light displacement. This combination is a challenging one to achieve, especially when designed to cope with our shallow and choppy waters. One needs to be able to trust the boatyard’s capability and dedication to quality in all its dimensions. With Finngulf, this is a given, as they have this very dedication in their DNA. This I can say after the happy marriage with my previous partner, the FG41 #6, “Jipii Again”. I am faced with some difficult decisions that are to be made by the end of the year. These include the color of the boat. Don’t be surprised if it will be all black. I mean all black: the hull, the super structure, the mast and even the boom. And metallic, not just normal black. Use of such a dark color is made possible by the high quality of the FG43’s surface, whereas it would be unthinkable on a standard high volume boat on which it would show the unevenness of her hips, hinting towards cellulite. And that is not exactly the kind of bride I am looking for!