Team Manager: Dr. Nadire Berker Yalcin
Wife, colleague, friend, sailor, Nadire has been by Selim’s side for 26 years now. Together they worked as physicians, raised their children and grandchildren, ran marathons, rowed in regattas, swam across continents, did triathlons, climbed mountains and sailed around the world for 13 years. Now she will lead the team that will take HDC on the GGR. She hopes that her Captain will come back quickly and they can enjoy sailing the oceans together again.
Project Manager: Ali Can Surekli
Can is a dear friend, and a brother. In and around boats ever since he was a little kid, he sailed extensively in the Aegean and after the success of his enterprise Yachtworks, he decided to go sailing longer distances. After a couple of Atlantic crossings, Can switched from his beloved HR 38 ‘Kısmet Guzelim’ to a Garcia 50 ‘PeliCan’, and sailed around Cape Horn to Patagonia. Now he is back home to lead the refit project of HDC. Selim will benefit a lot from his expertise, knowledge and his capacity for finding solutions to complicated problems.
Logistics: Çiğdem Sürekli
Çigdem is one of the founders & owners of Yachtworks. She is ready to find answers to all our questions, with a happy, smiling face. She is a sailor herself, crossed oceans, and understands our needs.
Legal Issues: Itır İpekel Tsiropoulou
Ms. Tsiropoulou has been our friend since 2006 when we bought our Elan Impression 434 Ekip. She, with her husband Leo, have taken care of all the legal paperwork of our boats since then, and made sure that we had a home in Lavrio, Greece, wheneever we needed. For 20 years, Itır has been the solid base that we depend on while sailing the oceans.
Team of Yachtworks: HDC’s refit would not be possible without the expertise and excellent craftsmanship of our master workers.
Fatih Seren Master Carpenter
Ali Gemici
İlyas
Mehmet Kurban
İbrahim
Metehan
Doğan
Pelin, Oğuzhan, Servet, Hüseyin
Canvas Works: Royal Marine Upholstery
İbrahim Saçlı and Sinan xx in Royal Marine Upholstery have done their best to provide HDC with the highest quality cushions, beds, bedsheets, covers, lazy bag, dodger, and all the canvas work she needed for a comfortable voyage.
Steelworks: Mr. Murat Aydın
Tuzla in Istanbul Turkey is the heart of Turkish ship building industry, and ‘Murat Usta’ who has a workshop there, where he can create miracles out of metal. Our ‘Michelangelo’ of steel and aluminium has been a patient and a friend for 30 years, and has made countless big and small contributions to our life at sea.
Engineering: Mr. Çağlar Emiroğlu
We met and befriended Mr Emiroğlu in covid pandemia as a marina neighbour in Turkey. Since then, he ingeniously designed and patiently created the 3D drawings of the complex innovations Selim had in mind. He designed HDC’s bowspirit, water and diesel tanks and other complicated equipment. He is also our social media manager and enjoys sailing with Selim up and down the coast of Turkey.
Accommodation: Petek &Sinan Orhon S/Y Boreas
We thank our dear friends for letting us use their beautiful boat Boreas as a home base during our stay in the boatyard.
French Communications: Zeynep Burkutoğlu
Our sister Zeynep, with her excellent French and her business experience of over 30 years, acted on our behalf to buy, transport and arrange the customs of the new mast of HDC from the French company Z-Spar.
The Transfer Team: We would like to thank all our dear friends who accompanied Selim on (ex. Caramba) HDC’s voyage from Spain to Turkey. Caramba was 48 years old, partly neglected, with an almost dysfunctional engine and torn sails. She had no autopilot, no AIS, no kitchen, stove, running water nor a proper bed. We are grateful to the owner of Karma Yacht, Erdinç Sezer; the Aegean regatta champion racer/sailor from Rhodes, Greece, Dimitri Stamatis; rower and sailor Gediz Şarlar; and the owner of the beautiful sloop Forsa after Selim, Erkan Nursen for accompanying Selim on the various stages of this difficult trip. We are sure that they will lend a hand whenever we need.
Running Rigging: Burak Emin / Kaya Ropes
Kaya Ropes will provide all the running rigging including the halyards, sheets and all ropes necessary for HDC.
Alimentation/Food Supply: Sedat & Ebru Zincirkıran
Mr. Zincirkıran, born to a sailor family, and a good sailor himself will be providing the necessary freze dried foods that will be used throughout the race.
Our Mentors/ Guardian Angels: Mrs. Hattaya and Alim Sur, Mr. Ekrem İnözü
They are our mentors and Turkey’s oldest and most experienced ocean sailors. They give advice, provide support and help raise funds for our project. We take strength from their solid presence.
Financial support: We are grateful to our friends Oğuzhan Şengül, Atila Çağlar and members of the Gökova Sailing Club for their generous financial contributions to the refit of the HDC.
Mr. Erkan Nursen, a very old friend, a real sailor, and the owner of the famous little wooden sloop Forsa after Selim, crossed the Aegean on HDC and was the final crew member on its passage home. Selim and Erkan had sailed the Aegean together for the first time 31 years ago, when they broke the mast of Ada, one of Selim’s earlier boats, in the Fourni strait. Together the two friends completed the voyage safely this time, with many memories from all the years they sailed the Aegean together.