where did the money go?

15

Upload: luis-azevedo

Post on 12-Mar-2016

231 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

DESCRIPTION

Excerpt of a book telling the story of a yachtcharter company in Portugal.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Where did the money go?
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
Available in:
TNP
Typewritten Text
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/LuisAzevedo
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
TNP
Typewritten Text
Page 2: Where did the money go?

Where did the

money go?

The story of half a million Euros

Luis Manuel Azevedo

Lisbon 2013

Page 3: Where did the money go?

Title: "Where did the money go?"

Autor: Luis Azevedo

ISBN: 978-1-300-96648-7

First published on a p.o.d. (print on demand) basis in April 2013.

Copyright © 2013 by Luis Azevedo

Page 4: Where did the money go?

This book is dedicated to all sailors and shipping

people, and to all Europeans who believe in a

balanced unified Europe.

Page 5: Where did the money go?

Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013

Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013

Page 6: Where did the money go?

Contents

Foreword I

The project and how it was born 1

The first meeting 4

The start-up 20

"Neptuno", the first boat 27

"Saturno", the second boat 39

"Jupiter", the third boat 56

"Mercúrio", the fourth boat 59

The operation in 1993 61

"Venus" and the smaller boats 73

The year of 1994 – entering in the real world 80

The law in 1994 89

The law enforcement 97

The year of 1995 – rowing against the tide 106

The year of 1996 – denying the evidence 124

The year of 1997 – accepting the evidence 141

The year of 1998 – the year of the EXPO 149

The year of 1999 – still alive 160

Years 2000/2004 – closure 166

Recap 180

Where did the money go ? 182

Afterword 192

Page 7: Where did the money go?

Excerpt published on ISSUU on May 2013

Page 8: Where did the money go?

I

Foreword

This book was first thought of in the summer of 2008 on board a

'Bavaria' 42´ owned by Thomas, a Swede, during a small regatta.

In between the maneuvers of a sailboat, some stories about

Proiate popped up. This was a firm under which we tried to set up

in Portugal a yacht charter company, backed up by half a million

Euros of E.U. money. It was a project approved by the government

(Ministry of Economy), precisely with the purpose of supporting

and developing this touristic sector in the country. We were four on

board and at a certain point someone commented: "You should

write a book about that!”.

We finished the regatta in 3rd place and the book started

germinating in my mind. These words are being written after the

Portuguese government signed a commitment of some 78 billion

Euros with a pool joining the IFM, ECB and an European fund fed

by EU countries. It is natural and logical that all Europeans, those

who lend and those who are forced to accept the compromise, ask

themselves:

- “Where did the money go? “

There are some clichés in the occasional replies to this question,

both from politicians as well as from the people in the street. The

first tend to blame people´s level of qualification, economic old

structures and methods, etc., while the later usually claim that it

happened because ‘...they are all a band of thieves...’.

Even considering there might be some degree of truth in these

kind of explanations, experience shows that these assumptions do

not explain it all; many of the reasons are also of a different nature,

mostly found in the way some politicians and public officials with

Page 9: Where did the money go?

II public responsibilities have undertaken their task, while citizens

interaction with these last classes, also play their role in the way

situations unfold.

The main purpose of this book is to tell an European story, a small

window on recent events from a recent past. That is the reason

why it is written in English (not my mother language), broadening

the potential universe of readers (an official E.U. 2012 report

concludes that English is the most disseminated language in

Europe, although it represents only 13% of the total native

speakers).

Europe has reached a crucial point in its political and social

evolution. From the basic 3 pre-conditions to establish a common

currency (the Euro, €), two are still two to be met: a joint and

unified G.D.P. and a common trade balance.

The only thing in place so far is the currency, which isolated from

the other two factors has become a war object, subject to

manipulation capable of destroying entire countries, let the Greeks

testify it, with a loss of about 25% in G.D.P. (war level destruction).

Image I - In Lagos boat show in 1995.

PROIATE was a Portuguese corporation that existed between

1991 and 2004, acting mainly in chartering sailing yachts in

Portugal. From its birth till its death (dissolution in a public notary),

the company played its role for 13 years, and has belonged to

various partners, all Portuguese citizens.

Page 10: Where did the money go?

III

Altogether, there were nine partners who took a share in the

company during its life, and therefore effectively exerted their

influence in the way things developed, for the worst and for the

best, as one ears in marriages when bride and groom are in the

altar facing the priest. In fact, as anyone involved in business

partnerships comes to learn sooner or later, the closest thing in life

resembling to a marriage is a firm or commercial partnership.

The company was created with a specific purpose: to embody and

execute a project submitted locally in 1989, applying for a non-

refundable subsidy to implement a (supposedly) new activity in

Portugal: chartering sailing yachts without crew (like renting a car,

for example).

This is the story as seen and lived by one of his managing

partners.

Lisbon, April 2013

TNP
Typewritten Text
Available in: Lulu.com, click the button to open in a browser window.
TNP
Typewritten Text
Page 11: Where did the money go?
Page 12: Where did the money go?

5

The project and how it was born

Portugal formally signed its entry into the E.U. simultaneously with

Spain on the first January 1986. As from that moment, conditions

started to be implemented for E.U. money to be made available, in

order to try diminishing the development gap with central/northern

Europe. One of the established funds targeted the touristic sector,

contemplating nautical activities as one of the subsectors. These

were the basic conditions that fueled an original project for a yacht

charter company in the bay of Albarquel,

located some 40 kilometers south of

Lisbon at the estuary of the river Sado.

The initial project is dated August 1989. It

contemplated the acquisition of a fleet of

eight sailing yachts to be based in the

above referred bay.

The projected boats were French, ´Beneteau Oceanis´ 350, charter

versions of a popular 10 meter sailing boat with 3 cabins and beds

for 8 people. The project proposed splitting the fleet in half, 4 boats

equipped as the standard cruising version, and the remainder of a

regatta version, the popular "First" series, the 35'S'5 . The economic

study supporting the project was relatively short, with 22 pages, but

focusing on the principal factors to consider, such as a global

investment of about one million Euros, the creation of minimum four

fixed jobs, the absence of local competition, and an estimated

seasonal income per boat of about € (Euros) 42.500, thus

amounting to a total yearly income for the whole fleet of about €

340.000.

Image II – Oceanis fr Benetau catalog.

Page 13: Where did the money go?

6

The original study consisted of a 22

page document made by one of the

initial partners. Projected sales were

optimistic, since the support from the

EU funds in theory allowed for a

considerable public price reduction

without compromising the financial

health of the company. On the other

hand, at the time there was formally

no local competition. The only

available sailing boats were supposed to be found in sailing clubs, of

a smaller and simpler dimension, at the disposal of associates or

sailing schools run by such clubs. The scope of employment of such

boats from clubs didn´t allow for the kind of sailing that PROIATE

proposed to offer, with conditions to accommodate groups or families

for a week end or longer periods.

Emphasis was put on two major potential groups of clients:

- Foreign clients in summer/peak season weeks, to whom the

company could offer a service similar to other destinations, mostly in

the Mediterranean (Spain, Turkey, Greece, France, Italy, etc...).

- Local clients, with the intention to fill in the rest of the year

(medium/low season), considering that the company would operate

all year-round, reducing the activity in winter, but even so keeping at

least one of the boats operational so that day-charters could always

be sold to local clients. The aim here was to attract sailing

enthusiasts from local clubs and to exploit a new market segment, to

be induced by PROIATE´s own existence: sailing lovers who could

with this project find a possibility to try or occasionally use a sailing

yacht without needing to buy one, something that besides the above

mentioned clubs did not exist in Portugal at the time.

Image III – cover of feasibility study.

Page 14: Where did the money go?

7

Image IV - The beach of Albarquel in a photo from a promotional pamphlet of the time.

The study ended with some considerations about the fact that all

over Europe, including the north (Baltic) with a much severe weather,

this kind of activity existed with success, thus concluding that with

our mild weather, such venture was faded to find a confirmed and

enthusiastic acceptance, not only from existing European sailors, but

would also contribute to develop a local yacht charter market.

Image V - landscape detail in the beach of Albarquel.

TNP
Typewritten Text
Available in: lulu.com (click to open in browser).
Page 15: Where did the money go?