Nadal goes naut cal
DROPPING ANCHOR WITH TENNIS SUPREMO RAFAEL NADAL WORDS: TOM WESTERN
T
here’s an endearing image of global sports icon Rafael Nadal lowering a fishing line into the clear blue seas around Mallorca in pursuit of a tasty catch that is perfectly at odds with the star’s image on the court. The idea that the brimming, tanned, toned, bulldozing tennis champ could switch from forcing opponents’ forearm smashes into the net to gently dropping a monkfish into one is as delicious as it is perverse, though not for Rafa.
“I can see why my persona on the court translates to an image people have of me off the court, but the truth is in one environment I am a competitor… I am turbo-charged, focused and intense, because that’s the only way I know how to play tennis; and then, in pretty much every other setting, I am relaxed, calm, almost carefree.
“A lot of the time, if I am not training, all I really want to do is relax.”
And the four-time ATP winner’s favourite mode of transport by which he can breeze away the stresses of serving at world sport’s top table is, of course, a yacht.
The 33-year-old – who won the first of his 18 Grand Slam titles back in 2005, but seems to have been around for infinitely longer – hit the headlines at the start of the summer when he controversially listed his 76ft vessel, Beethoven. The Monte Carlo Yachts- manufactured craft had been a fine companion over the past three years – a glimmering pod often seen around the Balearics and with so many elements of
the tennis pro embedded in its mainframe. It offers power yet speed, aggression yet grace, and even found itself named after the sportsman’s favourite composer.
What Beethoven represents most to Nadal is a reflection of his days growing up in Manacor, on the island of Mallorca. For so long wrapped up in the world of top-level sport, his time reacquainting with the freedom, relaxation and pleasure of exploration was something that took him right back. “I think we all want to rediscover those emotions we had as a kid,” he says. “For me it was so many happy days just being on the coast, finding places to go, with the sound the sea around me. It is surely the most calming sound in the world, and I felt I had missed it and needed to reconnect with something.”
And yet, for someone so passionate, dedicated and enthused by his love of the sea, it seemed perverse that the star, worth an estimated $200m, was ready to give it all up by selling his cherished yacht. Of course, the real explanation was not that Nadal was turning his back on sunny afternoons spent relaxing on board, rather his desire was to extend the time spends on the sea, with the purchase of an 80 Sunreef Power catamaran, set for delivery in 2020.
His new boat is a beast of a machine, designed for long cruises and short hops alike, and features fully customisable living spaces to which Nadal will surely want to apply his personal touch. The craft has an incredibly open feel, offering space and light from the
ONBOARD | AUTUMN 2019 | 25
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