Sardinia sailing holiday

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

Sailing — actually using the sails — is the default rather than the exception. The consistent breezes of the Bonifacio Strait and the Maddalena archipelago make it possible to run most legs under sail alone, and skippers are coached and tracked on their sail-vs-motor ratio so there is no commercial pressure to motor for convenience. Engine fuel is included in the trip price specifically so the crew has no incentive to shortcut to motoring. Daily legs are deliberately short (10–20 NM).

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

Most of the cruising area lies inside the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park, and the crews sail it by the park's rules: entry permits are paid for every boat (funding conservation directly), installed mooring buoys are used where available, and anchoring is done on sand — never on Posidonia seagrass meadows. The protected Spiaggia Rosa on Budelli is shown to guests from the water only; landing has been banned for decades and we keep it that way. In the Lavezzi nature reserve on the Corsican side the same discipline applies.

We also time the season around the environment: there are no departures from mid-July to late August, when boat traffic in the park peaks — our guests see the archipelago in its quieter months.

Single-use plastic stays off the boat. Each guest is given a reusable water bottle on day one, drinking water is refilled onboard, and the host's provisioning list excludes individually-wrapped snacks. Waste is sorted in the cockpit and landed at marina recycling points.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY

Spending from each trip stays in the small harbours of the strait rather than flowing to a head office abroad. Dinners ashore are taken at family-run trattorias and restaurants in La Maddalena, Santa Teresa Gallura, Palau and Bonifacio; there is no commission arrangement with any restaurant, so guests are sent to the place that's best on the night, not the place that pays. Provisioning is bought from local supermarkets, island bakeries and markets around Olbia and Palau, and berthing and technical work go to the local marina at Cala dei Sardi. National-park permit fees paid for every week directly fund the protected area the trip depends on.

The format itself helps: an 8-guest catamaran with a two-person crew brings a very different presence to a small port than a cruise ship — spending is dispersed, the staff-to-guest ratio is high, and small harbours get the largest share of the contribution.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY

Skippers and hosts are professionally trained and employed with full social-insurance and pension contributions, with a strong gender balance across the crew pool and many crew returning season after season — the same names come back to the same boats, which is why the restaurant relationships and anchorage knowledge in this itinerary run deeper than a first-season operation.