Dressed as they are in Hawaiian-print shirts and shorts with the sun glittering on the water behind them, it appears 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 101ft yacht from Taiwan.
“We were doing month on, month off over the European summer, three months a year,” Kerr says.
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, let’s go home.”’
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. A new arrival, as is often the case, was at the root of the couple’s decision to change hemispheres and to switch from sail to motor. A
