Since 1994 Bark EUROPA has sailed with an international crew; all part of the worldwide EUROPA family, and with every member their own story to tell. Crew members Matt and Iefke have been sailing on EUROPA since 2014 and 2016. These are their adventures:
We met on EUROPA while sailing from the Netherlands towards Montevideo. Matt had been on board for a while and passionately worked as Bosun when Iefke joined as deck crew in 2016. We sailed the North and South Atlantic voyages together in the years after. Our joint passion for sailing and traditional boats led us to embark on our own adventure of building a boat in Southern Tasmania.
We loved sailing on EUROPA for the family we became part of, for the ship and her traditional rigging and for the voyages she undertakes, being a ship that truly sails. We've made friends that are like family and learned all about life on the ocean and decided that we wanted to keep sailing. When we celebrated our marriage in 2018 we were surrounded by Bark EUROPA crew members from all over the world which made the day extra special.
Sailing EUROPA gave us the skills and the confidence to start the adventure of building our own home on the water. We are currently building a 41ft wooden pilot cutter inspired sailing boat that will take us around the world when she is finished. We hope to follow in the footsteps of the great Ocean Wanderer and explore the waters of our world under sail, together with our very own little ships dog Obie.
You can have a look at our building project on our social media page: A boat by the river