Dressed in Hawaiian print shirts and shorts, the tropical sun glittering on the water behind them, it is fair to say that Pete Kerr and Malcolm Watkins are “over” Europe. This Australian yachting couple had been getting their kicks in the Med for years, sailing the storied Perini Navi sloop Elettra between the region's yachting hotspots. But enough was enough. They sold her, returned to local waters and commissioned a new 31-metre yacht from Taiwan.
“We were doing month on, month off over the European summer, three months a year,” says Kerr.
Watkins sighs. “You miss out on a lot of social events in Australia – weddings, birthdays, friend get-togethers,” he explains. “So, after six or seven years sailing in the Mediterranean, we said ‘We've done it, so let's go home for a while.”’
Beautiful, woody went up for sale and, with her previous connection to yard owner Fabio Perini, for whom she was built, she was quickly snapped up. Changing boating hemispheres, shifting from sail to motor: as in many cases, it turns out there was a new arrival at the root of the couple's decision. A miniature schnauzer,
