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Excerpt of a book telling the story of a yachtcharter company in Portugal.
Citation preview
Where did the
money go?
The story of half a million Euros
Luis Manuel Azevedo
Lisbon 2013
Title: "Where did the money go?"
Autor: Luis Azevedo
ISBN: 978-1-300-96648-7
First published on a p.o.d. (print on demand) basis in April 2013.
Copyright © 2013 by Luis Azevedo
This book is dedicated to all sailors and shipping
people, and to all Europeans who believe in a
balanced unified Europe.
Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013
Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013
Contents
Foreword I
The project and how it was born 1
The first meeting 4
The start-up 20
"Neptuno", the first boat 27
"Saturno", the second boat 39
"Jupiter", the third boat 56
"Mercúrio", the fourth boat 59
The operation in 1993 61
"Venus" and the smaller boats 73
The year of 1994 – entering in the real world 80
The law in 1994 89
The law enforcement 97
The year of 1995 – rowing against the tide 106
The year of 1996 – denying the evidence 124
The year of 1997 – accepting the evidence 141
The year of 1998 – the year of the EXPO 149
The year of 1999 – still alive 160
Years 2000/2004 – closure 166
Recap 180
Where did the money go ? 182
Afterword 192
Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013
I
Foreword
This book was first thought of in the summer of 2008 on board a
'Bavaria' 42´ owned by Thomas, a Swede, during a small regatta.
In between the maneuvers of a sailboat, some stories about
Proiate popped up. This was a firm under which we tried to set up
in Portugal a yacht charter company, backed up by half a million
Euros of E.U. money. It was a project approved by the government
(Ministry of Economy), precisely with the purpose of supporting
and developing this touristic sector in the country. We were four on
board and at a certain point someone commented: "You should
write a book about that!”.
We finished the regatta in 3rd place and the book started
germinating in my mind. These words are being written after the
Portuguese government signed a commitment of some 78 billion
Euros with a pool joining the IFM, ECB and an European fund fed
by EU countries. It is natural and logical that all Europeans, those
who lend and those who are forced to accept the compromise, ask
themselves:
- “Where did the money go? “
There are some clichés in the occasional replies to this question,
both from politicians as well as from the people in the street. The
first tend to blame people´s level of qualification, economic old
structures and methods, etc., while the later usually claim that it
happened because ‘...they are all a band of thieves...’.
Even considering there might be some degree of truth in these
kind of explanations, experience shows that these assumptions do
not explain it all; many of the reasons are also of a different nature,
mostly found in the way some politicians and public officials with
II public responsibilities have undertaken their task, while citizens
interaction with these last classes, also play their role in the way
situations unfold.
The main purpose of this book is to tell an European story, a small
window on recent events from a recent past. That is the reason
why it is written in English (not my mother language), broadening
the potential universe of readers (an official E.U. 2012 report
concludes that English is the most disseminated language in
Europe, although it represents only 13% of the total native
speakers).
Europe has reached a crucial point in its political and social
evolution. From the basic 3 pre-conditions to establish a common
currency (the Euro, €), two are still two to be met: a joint and
unified G.D.P. and a common trade balance.
The only thing in place so far is the currency, which isolated from
the other two factors has become a war object, subject to
manipulation capable of destroying entire countries, let the Greeks
testify it, with a loss of about 25% in G.D.P. (war level destruction).
Image I - In Lagos boat show in 1995.
PROIATE was a Portuguese corporation that existed between
1991 and 2004, acting mainly in chartering sailing yachts in
Portugal. From its birth till its death (dissolution in a public notary),
the company played its role for 13 years, and has belonged to
various partners, all Portuguese citizens.
III
Altogether, there were nine partners who took a share in the
company during its life, and therefore effectively exerted their
influence in the way things developed, for the worst and for the
best, as one ears in marriages when bride and groom are in the
altar facing the priest. In fact, as anyone involved in business
partnerships comes to learn sooner or later, the closest thing in life
resembling to a marriage is a firm or commercial partnership.
The company was created with a specific purpose: to embody and
execute a project submitted locally in 1989, applying for a non-
refundable subsidy to implement a (supposedly) new activity in
Portugal: chartering sailing yachts without crew (like renting a car,
for example).
This is the story as seen and lived by one of his managing
partners.
Lisbon, April 2013
5
The project and how it was born
Portugal formally signed its entry into the E.U. simultaneously with
Spain on the first January 1986. As from that moment, conditions
started to be implemented for E.U. money to be made available, in
order to try diminishing the development gap with central/northern
Europe. One of the established funds targeted the touristic sector,
contemplating nautical activities as one of the subsectors. These
were the basic conditions that fueled an original project for a yacht
charter company in the bay of Albarquel,
located some 40 kilometers south of
Lisbon at the estuary of the river Sado.
The initial project is dated August 1989. It
contemplated the acquisition of a fleet of
eight sailing yachts to be based in the
above referred bay.
The projected boats were French, ´Beneteau Oceanis´ 350, charter
versions of a popular 10 meter sailing boat with 3 cabins and beds
for 8 people. The project proposed splitting the fleet in half, 4 boats
equipped as the standard cruising version, and the remainder of a
regatta version, the popular "First" series, the 35'S'5 . The economic
study supporting the project was relatively short, with 22 pages, but
focusing on the principal factors to consider, such as a global
investment of about one million Euros, the creation of minimum four
fixed jobs, the absence of local competition, and an estimated
seasonal income per boat of about € (Euros) 42.500, thus
amounting to a total yearly income for the whole fleet of about €
340.000.
Image II – Oceanis fr Benetau catalog.
6
The original study consisted of a 22
page document made by one of the
initial partners. Projected sales were
optimistic, since the support from the
EU funds in theory allowed for a
considerable public price reduction
without compromising the financial
health of the company. On the other
hand, at the time there was formally
no local competition. The only
available sailing boats were supposed to be found in sailing clubs, of
a smaller and simpler dimension, at the disposal of associates or
sailing schools run by such clubs. The scope of employment of such
boats from clubs didn´t allow for the kind of sailing that PROIATE
proposed to offer, with conditions to accommodate groups or families
for a week end or longer periods.
Emphasis was put on two major potential groups of clients:
- Foreign clients in summer/peak season weeks, to whom the
company could offer a service similar to other destinations, mostly in
the Mediterranean (Spain, Turkey, Greece, France, Italy, etc...).
- Local clients, with the intention to fill in the rest of the year
(medium/low season), considering that the company would operate
all year-round, reducing the activity in winter, but even so keeping at
least one of the boats operational so that day-charters could always
be sold to local clients. The aim here was to attract sailing
enthusiasts from local clubs and to exploit a new market segment, to
be induced by PROIATE´s own existence: sailing lovers who could
with this project find a possibility to try or occasionally use a sailing
yacht without needing to buy one, something that besides the above
mentioned clubs did not exist in Portugal at the time.
Image III – cover of feasibility study.
7
Image IV - The beach of Albarquel in a photo from a promotional pamphlet of the time.
The study ended with some considerations about the fact that all
over Europe, including the north (Baltic) with a much severe weather,
this kind of activity existed with success, thus concluding that with
our mild weather, such venture was faded to find a confirmed and
enthusiastic acceptance, not only from existing European sailors, but
would also contribute to develop a local yacht charter market.
Image V - landscape detail in the beach of Albarquel.