Yacht Life & Travel 2018 Ekim

YACHT
WE MADE A INTERVIEW WITH ERMAN
ARAS WHO IS THE HONORABLE HEAD
OF THE BODRUM CUP
and older kids about sailing at Muğla
region by founding Era Bodrum Sailing
Club. My aim was to make sailing
sports popular in our territory among
youngsters. Aside from allowing many
youngsters of ours to do sports, I prepared
a foundation for other yacht
clubs’ establishment in our region.
Would you like to share the origin
story of the Era Sailing Club with our
readers?
The idea of Era Sailing Club derived
from the decision to organize The
Bodrum Cup Regatta by Era Yachting
and Tourism Co. Ltd. in 1989. Our
aim was to draw attention to using
sails in charter yacht regatta and make
it common and upon accomplishing
this, ee federated the club in 1993 and
started courses on optimist.
Hello, first of all, can you introduce
yourself shortly?
I was born on the 11th of April, 1958. I
completed my primary school education
at Bodrum Cumhuriyet and Turgut
Reis primary schools, secondary
school and high school educations at
İzmir Türk Highschool, and university
at METU Physics Department. After
graduating from METU in 1981, I
decided to continue my career at Bodrum.
I followed the footsteps of my
father, Ömer Aras who was the Italian
honorary consul and proceed in the
56
tourism sector and founded the Era
Tourism Travel Agency. As one of the
first yacht agencies in Turkey, I believe
I contributed to the developments
in this area to a considerable extent.
Aside from commercial operations, I
took an active role on the foundation
of the Yacht Manager Foundation in
order to find a solution to escalating
problems of yachting and nautical
tourism. Later, I took part at Chamber
of Shipping’s Muğla branch as one of
its founders and member of the board.
I took the lead of educating 7 years
We continued our work selflessly as
the only institution which provides
course and activity on optimist branch
in Muğla region until the early 2000’s.
Thus, Era Sailing Club became an institution
which raises Turkey’s firsts
and sends sportsmen and sportswomen
to the national team. As the
club, we led our country by offering
the idea of having a sailboat school
that allows increasing youngsters’ attraction
and knowledge of sailing. At
the same time, I lead the production
of ‘STS BODRUM’ which is first in the
history of the Republic.
Since we operate in an area where
tourism activity is at its peak, as the
club, we take action with the idea of
the best way to raise young people’s
awareness and protect them is the
sports and sailing is the most suitable
sports branch in this region.
How the education is organised in Era
Sailing Club?
We have been delivering lectures dividing
them into specific periods since