Youngest Captain
Magda Makowska may be the youngest captain taking part in the Garibaldi Tall Ships Regatta but that doesn’t mean she is inexperienced in the matter of Tall Ships races. Last year Magda captained a young crew on the Polish yacht Sharki to win the coveted Sail Training International Friendship Trophy in The Tall Ships Races.
This year, 22 year old Magda has chartered Runaway, an Italian registered yacht owned by the father of a Polish friend of hers, Bartek Gajewski (pictured with Magda above). “It is really hard to charter a yacht in Italy and especially one that you don’t need to return to its original port of origin,” explains Magda. “So when I heard about the Garibaldi Regatta I immediately contacted Bartek to see if Runaway was available and was delighted when he said he’d love to come along and do the race too.”
Along with Magda and Bartek will be another eight young people including Russians, Latvians and a British Cypriot. “We have room for another two crew members so it would be great if we could tempt a couple of Italians to come along with us,” says Magda. “We have confused a few people because while Runaway is Italian registered, none of us on board speak the language so it would be great to have an Italian join us.”
Once the Garibaldi Tall Ships Regatta has finished, Magda will fly home for a couple of days before going out to Croatia where she is chartering the yacht Mati in order to take part in the Historical Seas Tall Ships Regatta. For that event, Magda is being joined by quite a few of the young crew that had sailed with her last year on Sharki, so they are looking forward to having a good race.
Meanwhile, Magda has the more immediate problem of preparing a speech to give at this evening’s Captains’ Dinner. She has been asked to reply on behalf of whole fleet to thank the city and the Mayor of Genoa for their warm welcome and hospitality while here in the city.
With her warm smile and ready laugh, there is little doubt that she will accomplish this with charm and competence.
