Our Amira

Amira is the middle name of one of our daughters. She was named after a little girl in Cairo whom Renate met in 1995 during a scholarship in Egypt. She liked the name immediately.

Amira is also the name of a ship we went on a diving safari with in West Papua – a special tour, our belated honeymoon.

The name Amira is easy to understand in many languages and quick to spell out in the radio alphabet: Alpha – Mike – India – Romeo – Alpha. This is an unbeatable advantage when it comes to checking in over the radio. That’s why it was quickly clear to us that Amira is the ideal name for our sailboat, a Lagoon 450S.

Our Amira is a French catamaran. We find a chic monohull – perhaps even with two masts – much more beautiful to look at. Our Amira cannot glide through the waves as elegantly as a monohull. But on the other hand, she doesn’t heel. While books are already falling off the shelves and unsecured glasses are sliding off the table on a monohull, everything stays where it is with us. We only wobble back and forth a little – which doesn’t mean that it can’t get uncomfortable on our Amira in unfavorable winds and waves. But basically, a catamaran is better suited for someone with Parkinson’s, whose muscles are becoming increasingly rigid and who struggles with stability. We even hope for the opposite effect: that Peter can maintain his sense of balance longer through permanent practice on a swaying ship than on land.