LOFOTEN OR BUST PART I

Swedish MBY reader Per Harrtoft fulfills a lifelong dream with a high-speed dash to the remote but beautiful Lofoten islands in the far north of Norway

- Per Harrtoft

I am a calm person with a restlesss mind. Living in the south-east of Sweden, close to the sea, boating has been a core part of my life for over 60 years. As well as having a shared interest in boating, my family also shares a workplace. We run a real estate firm in Karlskrona and named the business Utklippan after an island just outside Karlskrona archipelago.

My wife Eva and I started our boating life with a Flipper 620 when our youngest child, Andrea, was just five years old and our oldest, Martin, was ten. The Flipper gave us a lot of pleasure but as our children grew so did our need for space, so after five years we upgraded to an Aquador 26.

The Aquador lasted another seven seasons before we sold that and tried life without a boat for a while. We couldn't remain boatless for long and soon bought another small craft, an open aluminium sportsboat called a Buster Magnum. We used it regularly all year round and my son Martin and I even competed in the Blue Ribbon gentleman's race from Ystad to Haparanda, an 810-mile marathon across the Baltic Sea in less than 24 hours.

Now my restless mind has settled on a new goal, the Lofoten islands in the far north-west of Norway - some, 1,400nm away. Thankfully we now have a larger, more comfortable boat for tackling this challenge, a Grandezza 40 Fly named Deamare, which we took delivery of in 2017. Deamare alludes to the family and means "sea goddess" in Latin.

She has proved to be the ideal boat for us, both in terms of her layout and seaworthiness. The heavily glazed saloon keeps us wonderfully warm during the season but is filled with natural light and still allows us to admire the view out. A few steps down from the saloon are two good-sized cabins and a large galley open to the windscreen above, which means the chef never feels cut off from the action.