About Us

We are a couple of normal people doing something a little out of the ordinary, for a while…

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Jaja is from Malaysia and Tim is from Australia. They met in Kuala Lumpur and became interested in sailing – a weird thing to get into whilst living in a concrete jungle. But why not. They gained some experience in Malaysia and Thailand – from crewing on weekend racing in the beautiful turquoise waters of Port Klang to bareboat chartering in Koh Samui.

When some circumstances changed, they started brainstorming ways to live just a little differently and get that bit more out of life; how to get out of the office 9-5 environment, and to live in the outdoors, get some vitamin D and explore some cool places along the way. A ridiculous plan was hatched to get their own sailboat. It never seemed like it could be a reality.

After a 3-4 month search and ‘kicking the tyres’ of about 40 boats around Europe, RIBELLU was found in Corsica, France, in June 2018. She is an 1985 Amel Sharki, French-built, like a tank (a plastic version). Almost 12 metres long, and not even 4 metres wide, she was to become their new mobile floating home for the foreseeable future.

With it brought fun, challenges, highs, lows, sun, storms, chillaxing, maintenance, vitamin D, vitamin Sea, decisions, responsibilities, formalities, logistics, planning, provisioning, captaining, crewing, cleaning the bilge, and more. But what an experience they were to have, if nothing else… Bolehhh...