Interview: Father-daughter duo break world record in dinghy sailing with 347 nautical miles

Who sails 347 miles in a dinghy?

We are! It all started last summer. In August, my now 16-year-old daughter Jona and I started joking about a sailing adventure. At the time, Maruša Močnik and Uroš Kraševac held the world record for the most miles sailed in a double-handed dinghy. They had also been travelling on a Beneteau First 14. We said to ourselves: why don't we just try to break the record?

What happened next?

The idea arose to give our adventure an even deeper meaning. That's why we thought we wanted to draw attention to the life-threatening disease of pulmonary hypertension and make it better known. After all, we have been affected by the lung disease ourselves. My wife fell ill twelve years ago and so we know how difficult it is to diagnose this disease. Those affected have a hard time.

So you were also sailing for your wife the whole time?

Yes, exactly. Fortunately, Nina is doing very well again today and she was also a great help to my daughter Jona and me during the project. Thanks to her support, we were also present in many media in Slovenia and were able to draw attention to the disease at least at a national level in a few moments. We want to build on this even further.

What difficulties did you encounter along the way?

I have to say that it went really well. We sailed from Izola along the coast of Istria, crossed the Kvarner Passage and then sailed further south to the western part of the Croatian islands. We had never sailed more than 70 nautical miles on a dinghy before, so it was new for us to experience the doldrums at night on a dinghy. It was good because we could get some rest, but it was also frustrating. I also only slept for about seven hours in the 102 hours. From this point of view in particular, it's clear that you always have doubts and struggle with your own psyche in between.

And the sailing characteristics with luggage on board?

We had 40 litres of water with us alone, plus a bunch of drybags with snacks, sun cream and clothes. That really limited our sailing abilities, even though we sailed at an average of 3.7 knots and at one point were travelling at 10.9 knots. But the space on board was also very limited.

What are your next goals?

I don't know if I would set off on a project like this again. I am now fully focussed on supporting Uroš Kraševac's Mini-Transat campaign, which aims to raise awareness of my wife's former illness on the international stage.