FIU is a Grand Soleil 46.3 — an ocean-tested performance cruiser offering skippered passages along the Croatian coast and adventure sailing further afield. Built for the sea, sailed around it, ready for the next one.
A Polynesian word
Fiu
/ˈfiː.uː/ — feew
A state of mind. Enough of the daily grind. Time for a change. A feeling that many of us experience but only few dare to practice.
In the islands of the Pacific, when someone is fiu, nothing matters. Some unexplained force tells them to quit, to change, to follow the dream — to go fishing, go surfing, go sail away. The boat takes its name from the feeling, and from those who chose to listen to it.
We named the boat after the impulse to leave.
The Boat
Launched in 2003 by Cantiere del Pardo, FIU is a modern performance cruiser built to EEC Category A standards. Teak deck, blue hull, classic Grand Soleil lines. Easy to handle short-handed; quick enough to surprise people on the race course.
Equipped to Australian Cat 1 ocean racing standards: wind generator, solar panels, gel-battery bank, Raymarine instruments with hydraulic autopilot, HF radio, radar, chart-plotter, ten sails including two spinnakers, oversized winches, folding prop.
Today
Home port is Marina Punat on Krk. After two years and forty-three thousand miles, FIU is back where she started — the Adriatic islands she crossed an ocean to remember.
Adriatic
The boat still goes out. Day sails, weeks at anchor in coves that don't show up on charter brochures, the occasional cross-Adriatic run when the wind agrees. The schedule is quiet now, and that is the point.
2003 — 2006
FIU left the Adriatic in September 2003, crossed the Atlantic by way of the Canaries and Caribbean, transited Panama, touched Galápagos, French Polynesia, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia, raced Sydney–Hobart, sailed New Zealand, Tonga and Vanuatu, then crossed the Indian Ocean, ran the Gulf of Aden, transited the Suez Canal, and came home through the Mediterranean.
2003
Adriatic → Gibraltar → Canaries → Caribbean
2004
Panama · Galápagos · French Polynesia · Fiji
2005
Sydney – Hobart · NZ · Tonga · Vanuatu · GBR
2006
Indian Ocean · Suez · Mediterranean · home
The Skipper
Owner and skipper. Deep passion for sailing — has done a lot of it, never as much as he wanted. Sailed FIU around the world; back in Croatia now, and the boat is still his.
“Skippering a yacht is one of the most satisfactory recreations known. For many of us, it grows into more than a mere pastime, with our jobs becoming only the means to finance our boating lives.”Crew profile & past sailors
Marina Punat · Krk
Read the log from the 2003–06 odyssey, browse the gallery, or write to the skipper directly — the inbox is always open.
