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Biography
Phillipe Patacca
Born in Canberra in the 60’s, Phillipe started sailing casually as a teenager with a couple of school mates on Lake Burley Griffin in their plywood Fireball. He often found himself hanging from the trapeze (then shortly there-after in the drink) – an inglorious initiation into the world of wet boat sailing. He tried his hand at windsurfing, but found that pursuit a little too much on the damp side too! 8-)
Life and friends moved on and so did he – to Melbourne. He met his lovely wife, started a career in IT, and then extended the family. Shortly after number one son arrived, he struck off on his own into the murky waters of small business and consulting. 15+ years on things have worked out pretty well in that arena - time for a new challenge!
Phillipe has developed a passion for sailing and building wooden boats over the past six years or so. Starting with a short sailing course at Rhyll on Phillip Island one summer, he acquired a Mirror Dinghy from a mate and joined the Albert Sailing club for a year or so. Finding the Mirror just slightly undersized for his reasonably large frame (plus two young sons), he tried his hand at building. Trawling through web sites and magazines, Australian Amateur Boat Builder struck a strong chord: “I could build AND sail – even more time around boats!”. A serious bout of boat building followed, and an intimate introduction to the world of wood, epoxy and fibreglass – wonderful!
Slightly frustrated with his early attempts at a Terry Buddell ‘Dolphin’ and a Bolger ‘Micro’, it was time to get another boat and do some more sailing. He moved up to an 18’ Investigator 563 fibreglass trailer sailer. Now he really had the boating bug. A rather eventful road trip up North to find and retrieve the 563, and a couple of seasons sailing casually on Port Phillip and Western Port saw him settle on this type of sailing and this size boat: he could take unskilled crew or just single hand, and the boat was a pleasure to sail. A beautiful Hartley TS18 (“TARKA”), shared with a good mate, followed the 563. Oh! And he finished building his first boat – an AABB ‘stitch and glue’ tender from issue #40 – crystallizing the skills and passion for what was to come.
