I raced my first offshore season in 2007, on a Comet 33 out of Pescara, and I have not missed one since. The Adriatic is where I learned the craft — club regattas, winter championships, night passages to Croatia — mostly as trimmer. It taught me the thing I still value most: make many small adjustments, and be patient about the result.

The bigger boats came later. Along the way I have sailed everything from a Melges 24 to a Mylius 66 — usually on the sheets, sometimes on the helm or with the charts.

Racing is why I am calm on a charter. Once you have trimmed a spinnaker at three in the morning in thirty knots, a week around the islands with good people is the easy part.