La dolce vita

For an island nation, Australia’s boating culture is a far cry from anything you’ll find in Europe. But if you know where to look there are still stylish ways to get out on the water

- ALEX CARLTON

Sydney’s usual mid-afternoon breeze is swaying the shoreside eucalypts and chopping the bottle-green waves as our ride pulls up at the Birchgrove jetty in the city’s inner west. Our skipper, Daniel Da Silva, expertly guides our vessel, La Dolce Vita, alongside the weathered white pylons. He looks the part in a crisp shirt and striped epaulettes.

Da Silva may be pulling the levers and turning the wheel but the boat itself is the real star of the scene.

La Dolce Vita is a classic Italian speedboat, complete with polished chrome accents. The 26-foot Comitti Portofino runabout was built in 2002 from a single African mahogany log and imported to Australia from its birthplace on Lake Como. Similar models, usually made by the better-known brand Riva, swept Brigitte Bardot around the Gulf of Naples in 1963’s Le Mépris, and acted as a getaway vehicle for the female leads in the 1967 caper Deadlier Than the Male. They’ve appeared in so many James Bond films they’re practically a character.

Our mission today, if we choose to accept it, is to find out whether we can capture a little Italian water magic on Sydney Harbour.