Committee of Rais

Ottoman and Berbers adventurers, coming respectively from actual Turkey and Maghreb, were excellent sailors between XV and XVII centuries. The Westerns called them pirates and they really were pirates! Not more than Andrea Doria and the Knights of Malta, this is clear. We can say that during some centuries whole generations of adventurers, soldiers, ship owners met and competed in the middle of the sea, showing extraordinary courage and temperament, becoming the protagonists of the main nautical history ever seen.

The Islamic captains of that period were called “Rais” and operated both under the ottoman Emperor control and as pirates on their own. Among them solidarity was the main rule: they helped each other, they shifted change, they gave support to all the others. Both while “hunting” as “entrepreneurs” or acting under the Ottoman sultan command, they were always informed and coordinated, they kept in close contact through continuous connection missions, they were always ready to stand by each other.

Inspired by them, we decided to set up a Committee of Rais, a team made of all the captains, the seconds-in-command and aspirant seconds/captains, who are responsible for conducting the boat Mediterranea along the several miles of its route. They are the actual Mediterranea sailing crew, men and women who dedicate their time to the boat care and management, to crew and equipment, swapping on board in the different stages of the journey, acting as routiers when they are not on board, studying the weather forecasts and informing their firends on board about warnings and urgent news, managing customs formalities and bureaucratic items, facilitating the contact with land and sea national and international authorities and institutions, dealing with the research of protected areas, managing maintenance activities, bunkering, provisioning and so on.

But not only. The Committee of Rais of Mediterranea is also engaged in training activities concerning sailing, aiming to share the right values ​​of the Seafaring, the respect of the rules and environmental protection, which are the basis of the project. They attend periodically to nautical training and they teach sailing to those who come on board. They write about sailing topics on media and social networks, they study, promote and talk about sailing, navigation and sea, searching for that “seamanship “, which seems now lost in those who sail and navigate, and has to be recovered and preserved absolutely.

Undoubtedly, they are one of the main souls of Mediterranea Project.

 

Here they are (not in a specific order):

Rais Simone Perotti. Writer and sailor.One of the founders of Mediterranea Project. “Mediterranean Sea has always been the centre of the world. We have to stop just talking about it, in an adoring way, or ignoring it, as most people does. We have to live into it, we have to live it, know it inside out. I sail in the Mediterranean Sea to search for the questions I don’t have so far”. www.simoneperotti.com

 

 

 

Rais Francesca R. Piro. One of the founders of Mediterranea Project. “A journey always begins with a start. It’s most beautiful moment. The boat leaves the port, the lines on the ground, the gaze towards the horizon. You await. You are waiting to be outside, to feel the wind and to raise the sails. And come back the words of Joshua to  Bernard Moitessier: ‘Give me the wind, I’ll give you miles’”.

 

 

 

Rais Nunzia Siragusa – “Steal the money, steal the memories toobut always leave her sweet curiosity” (Francesco De Gregori, Atlantide)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rais Giuliana Crimella – (…) The Mediterranean is not just geography. Its borders are neither defined in space nor in time. We do not know how to determine them and how: they are irreducible to sovereignty or to history, they are neither state nor national: they resemble the chalk circle that continues to be described and erased, that waves and winds, enterprises and inspirations enlarge or shrink. Along the coasts of this sea passed the silk road, the paths of salt and spices, of oils and perfumes, of amber and ornaments, of tools and weapons, of wisdom and knowledge, of art and science. The Hellenic emporiums were both markets and embassies. Power and civilization spread along the Roman roads. Prophets and religions have come from Asia. Europe was conceived on the Mediterranean (…) [Pedrag Matvejevic]

 

 

 

 

Rais Tommaso Abeltino – I chose to sail for pleasure, to learn, to know. And I realized I can’t live without it, since at sea one knows others and himself better than anywhere else…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rais Dominique Neubert – The sea and sailing have always been part of my life. I couldn’t live without them. The Mediterranean is my sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rais Laura Giusti – Because we have chosen to be here with a purpose and it is our right and duty to respect it … as the sea teaches us, as the best teacher of humility and awareness. Be water … to find that deep connection with yourself for others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rais Valentino Vogliotti – Sailing is an “adult” passion for me, chosen with the belly and I was invested, conquered by it, now it is part of my life right into the bones…for the wind, for the sea and for the people you meet…

“long pants carry disease” [Peppe Piccionello]

 

 

 

Rais Giuseppe Amato – My next life, it will be on the sea