"My name is Jean-Marie Cabri, and I am a lifelong sailor."

Water is so essential to life, it is not surprising that every time I experience sailing something essential happens to me that stay in my memory and becomes part of my being.

My name is Jean-Marie Cabri, and I am a lifelong sailor. I got 'hooked' on sailing many years ago, while attending high school in the South of France, where I grew up. I will never forget this sunny day trying to domesticate this small racing vessel on the Mediterranean Sea. I struggled, but then I discovered the aerodynamics of sails that makes boat move by the power of the wind. What a rush! The forms of the hull seduced me and I fell in love with the experience of unlimited freedom that being out in the open ocean provides.

Many years and many miles later, and I still haven’t found anything close to the experience of sailing. So, I want to share with you these experiences and would like to encourage people to fall for sailing, as I did.

The first question is, why buy a boat?

One needs only to go walking around a marina, a harbor, or by the beach where sailboats abound to start answering this question. Your body and mind will start to relax and you’ll probably find yourself daydreaming; dreams about escapes, adventures, travels and discoveries. Time stops. Try it!
You might easily find your new great love, if sailboats aren’t already that. Go out of Los Angeles on a boat, just a mile off shore in the Santa Monica Bay and your World change.

Your life becomes bigger, your concerns disappear, and the noises in your head, the noises of the city all ease away...because you see, sailing is a life style, a philosophy, and a connection to our true nature. Spend time on the water, and you will feel the benefit of it in every cell of your body.

Now, buying a boat is our first step in saying yes to freedom, health and happiness. And here’s the great, crazy thing: sailing and sailboats are for everyone, from all walks of life; and while I am at it, I’ll dispel an incorrect notion: you don’t have to be rich to own a boat. Look around the marinas, and you’ll find young budding actors on their nice cozy 30-footers, who enjoy taking friends out on weekends; you’ll find great sea lovers that rescued an abandoned boat from a disimpassioned “land-er”.

And there are always, always people who are ready to go sailing with you.

So, free from the constrains of traffic jams, shopping malls, airport security, your phone or your blackberry, and what ever you feel is altering the quality of your daily life, the Ocean or the Great Lakes become your garden and your private pool full of life, surprises and mysteries.