Jo Hutch

Sailing in Fiji and beyond

half way around the world from Europe to Fiji!

Last year we bought an Open 66 ft race sailing boat originally designed and built by the famous Hungarian sailor Nándor Fa, which he raced in the 1990 Around Alone & 1992 Vendée Globe (round the world single handed race known as “the Everest of the seas”), becoming the first non-frenchman to finish the race.

We are currently in Fiji giving this old gladiator a new lease on life, transforming her from an ex race boat to a performance family cruiser!

Since we arrived in Fiji, our family has double in size to include a 9 month old baby and a dog we adopted from the local animal shelter.

The boat is an Open 60, which was later extended by 6 feet in to compete in the Australian racing series.

We are in the middle of a big refit, modifying the interior to make cabins, a spacious galley and saloon, a heads with a bath, workshop and more.

Our above deck modifications involve adding a bowsprit to fly our 6 gennakers further forward, adding a third stay to our 27m carbon mast to give us a wider sail range and to add some flashy racing colours to our hull and deck.

At the moment we're in Fiji undergoing a big refit and looking for any extra hands willing to help us get her ready to splash in July/August in return for some yummy Italian pizzas made by Timo and some fun sailing later in the year. This is a really big and exciting project for us and we'd welcome anyone that wants to be part of it.

Timo has a life time experience living and working aboard boats, so for anyone wanting to learn about boat building, repair or maintenance including things like vacuum bagging techniques, this is a great opportunity to learn some new skills!

Once we splash we plan to spend a few months cruising around Fiji testing out all the systems before setting sail into the big blue ocean in November/December...

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