“I was born in a country that doesn’t exist anymore,” begins Zoran Selakovic, yacht captain turned instigator of humanitarian and relief projects worldwide. “Before I was 17, I used three different passports and three different currencies, yet we never moved,” he says.
Born in what is now Croatia but what was then part of Yugoslavia, Selakovic was introduced to the water at an early age. But this fact belies the turmoil of homeland conflict and later the horrors of devastating hurricanes and the impact they had on his friends, which would go on to shape his future and help define a yacht and superyacht community determined to give back.
“My childhood was pretty idyllic,” he says. “I spent it by the sea on the Adriatic coast, swimming and sailing with friends. My grandparents had a small boat, which during the summer would be used to visit nearby islands, and a big part of it all was just getting into the rhythm of the sea in my early childhood and learning about life on these islands and small coastal communities. It was a fantastic way to grow up.”
