From dentist to yacht skipper
Running away to sea is is just a dream for most but WILL KEIR talks to a man who did just that.
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on July 4, 2012. Filed under Interviews,Lifestyle.
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The village of Oia on the Greek island of Santorini, courtesy of L Richard Martin, Jr
Running away to sea is is just a dream for most but WILL KEIR talks to a man who did just that.
By his late twenties, Robert was a highly successful dentist with a lucrative practice. Then, after ten years, he left it all behind to chase his dream.
Now in his fifties, he makes his living sailing yachts in the Greek Islands and the Caribbean. The rest of the time, he divides between his native Sweden and the wild, west coast of Ireland.
Wealthy
He could have been a wealthy man by now. Now, his worldly possessions can be fitted into a large holdall.
Robert’s love affair with the sea began at the age of 16 when he learned to sail a dinghy with the Sea Scouts in his Stockholm.
Later, while studying to become a dentist, he worked for a while at a sailing school as a training instructor, then as a tour rep on the Adriatic coast in the former Yugoslavia. He was hooked.
“I hadn’t ever really wanted to conform to society,” he says. “I always thought that life was more than just about getting up and going to work.
“But to live the life I wanted, I needed money. When I finished my studies, I worked for a year in an emergency clinic then bought a small boat, at a cost of around €8000 to €9000 in today’s money.”
By the age of 29, Robert was able to buy a large dental practice in a prime location in the centre of Stockholm.
Drift
But as he trudged to work each morning, his mind would drift off to the blue skies, warm breezes and turquoise waters of southern Europe. What had started as a hobby had grown into a grand passion.
Then one summer, he went with friends to the Greek island of Hydra. A chance meeting with the Swedish agent of a giant yacht charter company would set him on the long road to freedom.
“He was with his family sailing another boat, so we got chatting. I asked him if he needed any skippers, and he laughed and said, ‘Do you have any idea how many people ask me that question?’
“But then later on, he told me that he was about to do a promotion for some Swedish travel agents. He asked if I would like to be skipper on the week-long trip.” There was no pay on offer – only free food and accommodation – but Robert saw it as an opportunity.
“It went well – he was satsified and he asked me to stay for another week to skipper for the manager of a big Swedish weapons company, who have a show in Athens every two years.
“He told me that this time I’d get full pay, so I agreed. From there, it all took off.”
Greece
Whenever, work became available for a Swedish speaker, the company would contact Robert – and because he had his own practice, he would readily fly to Greece for two or three week’s work at a time.
“I was happy. I was sailing bigger boats than I could ever have dreamed of before. Then I had an opportunity to buy my own 37-foot boat which I worked out that I could get for half the price by chartering it out.
“Over the years, I was sailing more and more. Whenever I was in Greece, I really felt alive; but when I came back home, it was all work and sleep.
“I started to plan to leave – but when you have your own business and a steady income, it’s hard to leave. It was just a question of timing.
“By this time I was sailing for four months and working as a dentist for eight months. But it’s difficult to run a business like that. Clients can’t arrange to have the toothache – they need to see you immediately.”
Fell in love
When a friend needed work, Robert brought him in to split up the work. “Finally after nine years, at the age of 38, I had made up my mind that I wanted to leave. But it took another two years before I took the final step. That was when I met a woman in Greece and fell madly in love.
“My dentist friend in Sweden had told me that if I ever wanted to leave, he would buy me out. So one day, I called him from Greece and said, ‘look, I’ll be back in a week, I have a few patients to sort out – but then I want to leave’.
“I started to go to the Caribbean in the winter, and my dream was fulfilled. Sailing in Greece in the summer, sailing in the Caribbean in the winter. Always following the summer, following the sun.
“Before, as a dentist, I couldn’t wait till the day was over and the week was over – then on Monday morning, it was start all over again.”
Comforts
Robert has never regretted his decision to abandon the comforts of urban professional existence for the precarious life of a self-employed yachtsman.
Family and friends were astonished by his bold decision. His father asked him, “You really intend up dentistry to become a taxi-driver?”
In contrast to his once affluent lifestyle, Robert can now expect to earns just €120 to €150 a day when he’s working – though he has no accommodation costs and his clients buy him food, which means he doesn’t spend much money.
“Living in a boat means living in a very small space,” he says. “And you’re jumping from one boat to another, so you learn how to live out of a bag.
“You also learn how few possessions you actually need. If you have a normal life, you earn more money so you buy a lot of stuff you don’t need. But when you live a life like this, you realise just how little you really need.”
Experiences
In some ways, Robert is a solitary man. But as he says, “I meet people in all kinds of fields, all with different experiences.”
He’s learned to speak seven languages. His clients have included famous economists, physicists, historians, journalists, archeologists – and even members of the Swedish royal family.
“For a week or two weeks, you spend all your time with a group of between two and eight people. You get to know them well. They tell you stories and give you inside information about all sorts of things – politics, energy, strategic stuff. It’s very enriching.”
Sacrifices
To live this lifestyle, sacrifices inevitably have to be made. Robert has never had any children.
“I believe everybody has to take responsibility for their actions. If you have children, you can’t just take off. You can’t have everything.”
At one point, after meeting a Norwegian woman, he did succumb to the pressure to re-enter the rat race.
“I thought that maybe it was time to settle down, to live in a house and have a family. But after a year, I knew it wasn’t right for me. Life is too short.”
So he walked away, the call of the wide and warm southern seas too strong to resist.
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One Response to From dentist to yacht skipper
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Lavish
July 4, 2012 at 2:18 pm
I have a friend who escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1968, worked hard, bought a burger bar ( a proper one) made pots of money when Halifax bought out the lease, went for a holiday to Tenerife, saw a big yacht there, bought it, and hasn’t come back since…..