Growing up in the metropolis of Milan in northern Italy, Alice Dubini did not have the sea on her doorstep! But still, she nurtured a love of sailing from a young child. Her father was passionate about yachts and therefore their family childhood holidays were afloat. Each summer they cruised the Mediterranean, often through Greece and as far as the Turkish coastline. Starting from the age of 14, through the school summer holidays, Alice would go to sailing school on Isola d’Elba, a small island off the west coast of Italy.
In high school she studied languages and also cultivated a love of books, which led to her first job working in a library in Milan. Following this, she also spent a few years working in the offices of Mondadori Publishing House. At the time, Alice’s skill with languages was quite unique and her ability to speak English allowed her a job in the marketing department with Hewlett-Packard, and then later on in their IT department. Continuing the IT and financial analysis skills she had gained, she took a job with Vodafone, as department controller.
Through these years Alice had remained living and working in Milan, she had not forgotten her enjoyment of sailing as a teenager. She continued to spend her summer holidays sailing as much as possible, working as delivery crew and helping out friends with their boats. Life in Milan was stressful! and, seeking a different path, Alice trained to be a sailing instructor. Through the people she met on these training courses she lined up her first job as crew, on a 30m Ferreti. She joined the boat in Lefkas Marina, Greece, and started her yachting career as a stewardess on board. But a motorboat was not where Alice wanted to be, and she soon moved on to a sailing yacht – a 30m Jongert – cruising the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands. Her next adventure was on board a 35m Nautor Swan, sailing all the way from Finland to the Mediterranean. It was this summer that she spent on the Swan, when they stopped in Palma, that she fell in love with the city and the island of Mallorca. After the season, she and her partner, who was also working in the yachting industry on another boat, made the move to live ashore. In 2016 they arrived into Palma airport with a carry-on case of belongings each, and settled in Mallorca!
After a brief stint in the tourism sector, Alice returned to the world of yachting and worked for Nautipaints during the winter season and crewed yachts based out of Italy for the summer. It was the summer of 2018 when she joined Andrew as Office Manager for what was then Sentinel Yachting. Her expert knowledge of the yachting industry in addition to her organisational skills and leadership qualities continue to prove her a valued member of the Management team at Berthon Spain.
