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.
Peter Sellers
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 Chance Gardener of “Beyond the Garden.” This everyone knows. Sellers, however, 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: the Amelfis. His relationship was so deep and special that he considered her his most precious refuge. He tells this in 1969 within the documentary filmed by the BBC entitled“Will The Real Peter Sellers Please Stand Up.”
My real home? The boat
These are deep 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 (355 in total) and the quality and sophistication of technical and stylistic solutions.
The story of the Amelfis
The Amelfis (18 meters) was the flagship of the fleet. Peter Sellers had seen her as soon as she was launched in 1967 and fell instantly in love with her so much that he bought her after just a couple of minutes on board and before the test run.
Peter Sellers, 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.
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