On race morning the harbour wakes early. The gulets weigh anchor one by one, the wooden hulls settle slowly into the water, and the sound of lines being hauled runs together across the decks. Coming up on the start line the sails go up; boats that looked ready for laying-up until that day suddenly turn into something else once they find the wind. These boats, which once dived for sponge and carried fish, begin to run with October's first strong meltem.
This isn't the usual regatta. In most races a boat goes out with crew only; here the guest is on deck too.
Since 1989
The Bodrum Cup was first held in 1989. The idea was simple: to show what the heavy, broad gulet — the boat thought too slow to race — could actually do with the wind. The race was founded by the ERA Bodrum Sailing Club, and over the years it grew into one of the largest festivals of Turkish civilian seafaring. Every October the fleet races from Bodrum out to a cove and on to the next; in the evenings the boats gather in one bay, and rivals from the day lie at anchor side by side by night.
A Legacy That Races
Most of these boats were built by hand, years ago, in the coves of the peninsula. For a gulet to race is, in a way, for the master who built her to sit the exam too: was the keel laid true, does the hull cut the water well, does the boat carry herself against the wind? The winner is often not the newest boat; it's the one with the captain who reads the wind best and the boat that's been kept best. When the race ends, people talk less about who took the cup than about how many wooden hulls went into the water that week.
For a guest, The Bodrum Cup is a different kind of introduction to the sea. Standing on deck, you live the boat's heel, the sail filling, the captain's short commands from the inside. You don't have to race; most guests remember the day, not the result. October's wind is harder than summer's, the light sharper; to be on deck while a gulet runs in that wind is not an easy thing to describe.
While September is still running, the fleet already begins to prepare: boats are painted, sails looked over, crews gathered. When October comes, the harbour takes on an energy quite unlike the summer's rush — calmer, but deeper.
When evening comes on race day, the boats gather in a cove. The same hulls that pushed against the wind by day now rest side by side in still water. Who won is slowly forgotten. What remains is having seen that wood still speaks with the wind.
YACHT BROKERAGE →