A detour named Daisy

Patrik Kubaska and Dino Petesic, now 18 and 19 years, began sailing much like most kids did, and then they took a detour they would name Daisy. Patrik tells the story…

I think I was always attracted to the sea and the art of sailing, the endless movement through time and space. But when I started sailing at the age of 9 it was not easy. It took some time to understand how it all worked but then it started getting fun.

I was sailing for 4 to 5 years in the Optimist class and then I started sailing in the Laser 4.7. That’s where I met my crew Dino Petesic, and together we have sailed the International 420 and then moved to I-470, SL16, Dart 15, then to 470 again and finally to 49er.

Sailing in the 49er was really fun and full of adrenaline, but after a year we got exhausted and both agreed it wasn’t the right type of boat for us. That’s where our story with the Star kicks in.

I remember one day I was working on a bicycle in the garage when my father asked me if we would like to sail in the Star Class. He had an old friend who bought an old 1976 Star boat a few years ago and didn’t sail much in it.

So early one day we went with a flatbed truck from Zadar to Porec in Croatia, about 350km distance, to pick up the boat. When we got there we saw the boat was in rough shape. It took us a whole day to load the boat on to the truck because the boat’ trailer was in bad shape but we managed to arrive in Zadar not so late in the night.

The next few days me and Dino were just sitting in the boat and thinking what to do next. Our initial plan was to sand down the deck, paint it, and fix what needed to be repaired. When we started sanding down the deck, we soon decided to sand the entire boat. So for the next six months we worked on the boat every day after school, in almost any kind of weather, until she was ready for the new paint.

Thankfully, international paint company Jotun sponsored us with their best paint on the market. We didn’t have a spraying booth, but luckily the boat barely managed to fit inside our garage. We left the painting to the experts.

When she came out on the sunlight, we couldn’t believe how beautiful she was. It took us another month to put everything back on the boat and it was time to find a name. We were sitting for a few hours and decided we will name her Daisy.

Our first sailing was full of adrenaline… I will never forget it. Shifty winds blowing from 5 to 25 knots, but we survived. We had few problems, like a snapped backstay while sailing downwind in 20 knots, but the mast survived.

We really enjoy sailing in Daisy and would never change her for a newer boat because she is a part of us and we are a part of her.