Why "Beto"?

Well Beto is a pretty unusual name for a sailboat, or any boat for that matter. It started with my friend Sean and me sailing a Nacra F18 all summer, and reading all of the stories about people crossing oceans on sport cats. Through a little looking around, we came across Beto Pandiani. The first voyage of his that we saw was a Pacific Crossing on a 25' Sailing One sport cat. It was basically a 25' F18. He custom made wings with little sleeping pods on them and lawn chairs on the back for a more comfortable helm. It turned out that Beto has been doing all sorts of journeys on sport cats. His first voyage was from Miami to Brazil on a Hobie 21. He has also crossed Cape Horn, sailed the Drake Passage, and sailed to Greenland on these small boats. So if you can't tell, we were inspired by Beto and his voyages. He sailed scary passages on a Hobie 21, and we are building a Tiki 21. Every time we sailed through a nasty squall on the Nacra, we were always yelling BETO! in his honor, so it's only natural that the name stuck around. Moitessier was inspired by Slocum, and we are inspired by Beto!

                     

                                                      Beto in the Southern Ocean

Flickr album of all of the voyages

http://www.flickr.com/photos/betopandiani/