Hello, I'm Egemen. Before I really knew what was happening, I had finished a double major in International Trade and Management Information Systems at Boğaziçi University.
It happened fast. One moment I was in İzmir with my high-school friends, either saying "Celal Bayar's medical school isn't bad" or skipping class. The next moment I was at Boğaziçi.
When Boğaziçi became an option, my parents were naturally excited. My father insisted: "You're an international person and you speak languages. International Trade is perfect for you." My mother, a librarian, had a different view: "Data work is important work. I hear about it at every seminar. Management Information Systems is a rising star."
My own decision was unemotional and purely economic: pick whichever department had the higher entry score that year. So I started International Trade.
By the end of the first year I had a 3.8 GPA without studying much, so I made my mother happy too and added a second major in MIS.
That's enough about grades. Let's talk about the extracurricular: sailing.
Sailing, yes. Not windsurfing, and not rowing either. You move with the wind. You're in a boat. And yes, yachts are sailboats too.
When people first hear about sailing it sounds like a very classy sport, all white shoes and blazers. What nobody tells you is that real sailors are the hardest-working athletes of all. From maintaining the gear to carrying it, a sailor spends most of their time dealing with the boat.
Where it started
I started sailing in 2001 with the Foça Naval Forces team, set up so that officers' children would have something to do in the summer. The Optimists were tough, crash-proof boats that weren't very well looked after, and the sails were worn thin from years of use. At least, that's how I remember it.
That programme didn't last long, so I took a break. I started again in 2003 at the Foça Sailing Specialty Club, trained through the summer and kept going in winter. Before the 2004 provincial races I got my first sailing licence, and that year I raced for the first time, at the regional cup in Ayvalık.
Telling everything would take a novel, so here it is at 5× speed: in 2006 I moved to Karşıyaka Sailing (Optimist, then Laser 4.7). In 2013 I joined Boğaziçi University Sailing, starting on a Corby 29 and going on to countless types of yachts, pirates included.
Eventually I decided I needed a place to tell these adventures. This site is it.
Want to sail together? See sailing services, or say hello.