2024. Peter Sellers’ boat

Welcome to the special section “BAM 35 Years.” We are presenting “cult” articles from the Motor Boats archive, starting in 1990. A journey through time among stories unobtainable today, even in the great sea of the internet! A dive into the world of epic moments in motor boating. We begin with one of the stories we were most passionate about.

Sailor Peter Sellers

From Boats by Motor 2024, No. 36, March-May, pp. 68-71.

When he wanted some peace, the great British actor would start the engine and set sail aboard his Amelfis, a Baglietto 18M, which he considered his true home.

An out-of-the-ordinary character, beloved and celebrated as the greatest performer of British comedy and one of the most talented actors in film history – Peter Sellers. From the funny and neurotic Inspector Clouseau of “Pink Panther,” to the bungling Indian Hrundi Bakshi of “Hollywood Party,” from the multifaceted protagonist of “Dr. Strangelove” to the candid gardener Chance of “Beyond the Garden.” This everyone knows. Sellers, though, was also a genuine sea and yachting enthusiast. For years the actor was the owner of an 18-meter yacht from the prestigious Baglietto shipyard: theAmelfis.

His relationship was so deep and special that he considered her his most precious refuge. He recounts this in 1969 within the documentary filmed by the BBC entitled “Will The Real Peter Sellers Please Stand Up.” These are profound and engaging words in which many of us will not struggle to recognize ourselves: “I suppose my real home is on the boat. I put all my ‘pieces’ in there. I know the crew, they know me, they don’t bother me. They follow me around. I can run the boat by myself. Up there I’m not stuck in one place. I go out to sea and there is no one, no one at all. There are vast expanses of blue, and when the weather is good, I don’t know anything nicer than being at sea aboard a yacht, going into ports when you want, going down when you want, eating aboard, swimming. It is the ultimate in luxury. If they asked me what is the greatest luxury you have in life, I would tell them it is my boat.”.

It was the 1960s, and at that time thanks to the so-called “Metric Series,” the Italian shipyard was in one of its best moments, both in terms of the quantity of boats produced (196 in total) and the quality and sophistication of technical and stylistic solutions. L’Amelfis (18 meters) was the flagship of the fleet. Peter Sellers had seen her as soon as she was launched in 1967 and instantly fell in love with her so much that he bought her after just a couple of minutes on board and before the test drive. Peter Sellers, an absolute star of the time, always pursued by trails of admirers and filmmakers, associated his boat with escape: ” I know that at any time when the going gets tough I can move it and walk away. It is like still being a child who is running away from his mother and keeps looking back to see how far he can go before his mother stops him. Here, how far can I go? I imagine a family trip to the Mediterranean. A blue moon and me playing the recorder. Just the music I want and we will dive into the waters at night with an underwater flashlight with which to see even the stars. All a dream.”, says the actor again in the BBC documentary.

Aboard theAmelfis, the British actor often brought friends. Among them was Ringo Starr, the Beatles‘ drummer. In the late 1960s, precisely during a cruise to Piraeus aboard the yacht, at a time when Starr himself was on a course with the band, Peter Sellers decided to serve his guest for dinner a plate of boiled octopus. Seeing his friend’s reluctant expression, Sellers explained that he loved the thousand-tentacled animal and had discovered during his dives that certain octopuses embellished their underwater “dens” by artfully arranging pebbles and shells, almost as if to make a small garden. At the end of that dinner, Ringo Starr locked himself in the cabin and wrote the masterpiece that is “Octopus’s Garden” later included on the 1969 Beatlesian album “Abbey Road.” The song is about how nice it would be to be in the “octopus’s garden,” feeling safe and sheltered from the storms, inviting friends over, dancing and being sure not to be found by anyone. Here’s the point: deep in the ocean depths, as well as aboard a yacht sailing free and happy, the important thing for all of us is to be ourselves and finally feel at home.

By David Ingiosi

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