Aussie chases grandfather’s ski record

Ten day journey across the Med seeks to emulate world record marathon ski.

An Australian water skier, Alex Luther, is setting out to retrace the long-distance route skied by his grandfather, the late Harry Luther, who set a world record for a marathon water ski distance in 1970 when he covered a distance of 5,010 kilometres in 10 days, 5 hours, and 36 minutes.

Alex Luther will seek to emulate his grandfather’s epic journey later this month, following a route that begins in Tangiers, Morocco and tracks along the coasts of Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia, and back to the finishing line at Cervia, Italy. The route visits 7 different countries, 22 different ports, and crosses 6 different seas, 1 strait and 2 gulfs.

Called Chasing Canguro after Harry’s nickname, the project began seven years ago when Alex's mother gave him a scrapbook of his grandfather’s water-skiing achievements. Inspired by Harry, Alex taught himself to ski and decided to recreate his grandfather’s epic journey.

Over the course of the journey, the Chasing Canguro team, comprising two crews, will stop at 22 marinas over the 10 days, skiing two legs each day. To take advantage of the weather and water conditions, the team will start at sunrise each day and arrive at a non-critical marina for a brief stopover. The next leg will lead both crews to a critical marina where they will stay overnight, refuel, rest and prepare for the next day.

The longest day on the water will be close to eight hours in total, water-skiing from Valencia to Barcelona, and then onto Marseille.

To undertake the journey, Luther has chosen a combination of an Axopar 37 Sun Top powered by two of Mercury’s new 4.6-litre V-8 300hp outboard engines.

The partnership with Mercury offers another link with the past; in 1969, Mercury provided Harry Luther with twin Mercury 100hp engines to put on his boat Miss Pepsi, the first twin rig boat to compete in water-ski racing in Australia.

“Together with Axopar, we have the perfect combination in place to set the team up for success in the anticipated conditions — with both reliability and the ultimate in performance assured by the Mercury twin engines,” said Luther.