Where it started-- Part 3

Euro summer 95...European Skiff Pro Tour... Official Team Lexmark off season training... well thats what we told the sponsor!!!!!!!!!
Ingredients...
1. Mk1 Murray Skiff... the first one to be imported into Europe and racing against a full fleet of Mk1 B18s
2. 6 young aussies... 4 in the crew, one spare for breakages, and 2 mates taging along for a month while backpacking around europe... and the only AUS 18 in the fleet, apart from the occasional guest appearences from 18 legends J. Bethwaite and C. Nicholson... oh and the famous Stray, doing his best impersonation of being a pomm
3. Brand new french hire car and 3 months worth of fuel... only just big enough for 4 aus skiff sailors to sleep in when we had no dollars for accomodation... oh and 2 surfboards on the roof, which looked a little strange to the locals in northern Italy some 3000kms from any surf beach... and after 3 months of touring all over europe ended up with over 20,000kms on the clockThis pic shows the perfect Sardinia beachside location

End result... After regattas in Sardinia, Lake Maggiore- Swiss, Lake Garda, and the tiniest lake in Europe Lake Molveno the team including myself, Al Mansfield, Trev Mellior and Mitch Benson(back up crew, tour guide and finder of anything fun, free or illegal) ended up with 1 race win... could have been more, should have been more... mostly we missed our usual Sydney f/hand Jeff Gilham not just for his extra weight on the wire, but just to hold the team together on the race track
Off the water was another story and most of which I cant put in print, but basically a 3 month pub crawl thru most of northern Europe would best describe our tour... Pico Rosso became our liquor of choice for after race cellebrations, a lovely thick red consistency similar to red cordial, and which we later found to be over 60% alcohol... also plenty of great tasting German beers and not so great tasting Italian beers
On the water we had way too many breakages and stuff ups, broken mast tips in Garda in the fresh stuff ruined our chances there... luckily Julian was there with spares to help fix... and so many tiller flex join problems, I think we ended up breaking 4 or 5

This pic shows rigging in the main street on the water front of swiss town Locarno on Lake Maggiore... most of this regatta sailed in less than 5 knts and the first time I sailed one up on an 18 when there was barely a breath of wind... fun until the breeze picks up to a fresh 5 knts and all you can do is swim

So basically a 3 month piss up of constant hard partying, lots of driving and getting lost, 4 great skiff mates with lots of smelly clothes squeezed into a tiny euro car towing an aus 18, meeting lots of great people in lots of perfect locations... oh and some skiff sailing as well
Made for one hell of an adventure for my first trip to Europe, and one I would recommend to any skiff sailor wanting some off season training... apart from the very last race in the very last regatta venue when we finally got our shit together and won a race, and once we crossed that finish line for the last time in Europe my crew of big Al and Trev were so happy with each others brilliant sailing performance they then proceded to punch the crap out of each other on the cockpit floor... great sailors they both are, but both had decided the win was their doing and so had to tell each other why we could have won a few more races thru the long Euro 18 series.
They were both rite and wrong at the same time, as the team struggled with lack of training time together and lack of experience in short up and down racing compared with our usual Sydney long courses... but a great experience and one I will never forget... thanks guys and of course many thanks to Lexmark and staff