We’re coming into Finike harbour on our way back from Kekova one afternoon. There’s a yacht milling about in the entrance and as we alter course to avoid it, Cathy notices its distinctive lines and shouts, ‘it’s another Saltram!’
Finike is home base to two Saltrams – ‘Makarma’ and Rodney Douglas’s ‘Vito,’ the only aluminium Saltram. ‘Lara’, the new arrival, makes three 40 foot Saltrams in the same place at the same time – by our calculations almost 10% of all the 40 foot Saltrams in existence. We arrange a rendez-vous for the morning outside the marina to take photos of us all together and have a good look round each other’s boats.
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The three Saltrams
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| Vito from Makarma's deck |
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| Lara | |
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| Makarma |
It turns out each boat has its own character and each one is laid out differently down below. ‘Vito’ is utilitarian in battleship grey looking the long-distance business complete with baggywrinkles at the crosstrees. ‘Lara’ is sleek and beautiful - perfectly engineered with everything is in its place. Her owner Trevor took seven years to fit her out from the bare hull. ‘Makarma’ is more like a comfortable home – a bit cluttered but with a lived-in atmosphere. She has a good sized double berth amidships and doesn’t have the mainsheet track in the cockpit.
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| Makarma's foredeck ready for company |
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| Lara's foredeck ready for sea |
But essentially we’re the same go-anywhere cruising boats, sturdily built with graceful lines. As owners we’re much the same too – proud of our boats and keen to show off well thought-out kit like neatly placed pulleys for the self-steering, a stowable cockpit table, dodgers which unzip to make room for a winch-handle and so on.
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| Lara's neat self steering set-up |
Although surprise, surprise - no-one’s yet come up with a good way to go astern in a straight line. Alan Pape and the Skentelberys would have been chuffed to see us all!
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