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Australian man travels 3,700km on water skis to break his grandfather's record

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Australian Alex Luther has set a new world record by waterskiing along the Mediterranean in 10 days of 2 hours 17 minutes and 36 seconds. He is 3 hours and 17 minutes ahead of his grandfather Harry Luther, who achieved the feat almost 50 years ago.

Alex, like his ancestor, covered the distance from Tangier in Morocco to Cervia in Italy.

The 36-year-old overcame a distance of 3,699.3 kilometres. His average speed exceeded 50 km/h and he covered 250 to 558 km per day.

The weather was not always favorable to the athlete and sometimes even threatened to set a record. On Day 4, he spent a gruelling 11 hours on the road to cover the longest distance between Barcelona and Monaco.

In total, Alex visited 7 countries, stopped in 22 European cities, and crossed 6 seas, 2 bays, and 1 strait.

«It's unreal, a dream I had more than seven years ago came true,», Alex said when he arrived in Cervia.

Technical equipment played no small part in setting the new record.

In both cases the competitors were towed by boats equipped with Mercury Marine engines. However, Harry Luther in 1970 went on a 5-meter boat Miss Pepsi with two 100 hp engines, and Alex used an 11-meter boat Axopar 37 Sun-Top equipped with two V-8 Verado 300 hp engines.

In addition, Luther Sr. had only a compass for the route and had to sail along the coast without taking to the open sea. So he covered a distance of 1310.7 kilometers longer than his grandson did 48 years later.

«We'd like to thank Alex for his endurance and determination along the way," said Jan-Erik Viitala of Axopar Boats, which has provided a boat for the new record holder. - This achievement is particularly impressive considering that he only started water-skiing five years ago specifically to accomplish this quest».
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