The Crew

The Desired Crew Profile: We believe that people with true, deep love for sailing, adventure and nature will make a good crew. Add to this a good sense of humor, tolerance and ability to handle sensitive situations and there it is, our perfect FIU crew candidate!! If you are interested to join Fiu on our ocean adventures and you think you have some (or all!) of the above characteristics please let us know by sending us an e-mail. It is desirable to have some offshore sailing experience as well. Those with limited offshore experience but with the 'sailor's heart' are welcome as well but they should be aware that out there it can get rough, not only in terms of rough weather but also 'socially'. Spending weeks and months on a very limited space can be a very frustrating affair! Disembarking 'difficult cases' in the middle of ocean is no one's preferred option!

For further information about Fiu SA please read Frequently Asked Questions (43 kb). If interested to join Fiu Sailing Adventure please contact Ivo by sending an e-mail to: fiu-info@excite.com (or call +61 (0) 403 802 707) to send you Crew Survey Form and Crew Booking form.

Ivo Orlic, skipper & owner

Ivo has a deep passion for sailing. He sailed a lot, but, certainly not as much as he wanted. For the past ten years, family and job commitments of the modern western society dragged him further and further away from sailing (sounds familiar??). As a scientist he travelled extensively with his family and worked on 6 continents; Europe, Asia, N & S America, Africa and finally for the past five years has settled down in Australia, Sydney. Although science was his passion for many years, it eventually became just 'a job' and SAILING emerged again as the No. 1 passion. Ivo reached the stage that many of us are familiar with, the stage that can be well described with the Polynesian word Fiu. Fiu can loosely be translated as 'time for a change', and therefore the name of this Adventure and the Yacht (for detailed description of the word Fiu read more).

Ivo in his ex-lab in Sydney

Like many sailors', Ivo's life-long dream was to sail across the oceans, to visit dream islands of the South Pacific, to circumnavigate the world. Ivo started sailing as a young boy in the sheltered waters of the beautiful bay of Punat, in Adriatic, Croatia. Initially he sailed on open boats, until the age of 19 when he upgraded his father's 20 ft boat to a sailing boat. Later he built his own 28 ft sailing boat and few years later (late 80es) purchased his first 'proper yacht', Jeanneau 40. Ivo sailed extensively in Adriatic, Mediterranean, South East Asia, and last few years in Atlantic and Pacific clocking up more than 55,000 nm of blue water sailing. He holds a number of first aid, sea-survival, sailing & boating certificates.

Punat-where all started

Ivo's motto can be well summarized by the following maxim:

Be unafraid of new ideas, new theories and new philosophies. Have the curiosity to experiment… to test and try new ways of living and thinking.

Recognise that the only ceiling life has is the one you give it and come to realise that you are surrounded by infinite possibilities for growth and achievement.

Keep your heart young and your expectations high and never allow your dreams to die.

by Wilfred Peterson

ARC 2003 Crew

During the Atlantic crossing, there were 8 crew on board Fiu. They were, in order of signing up; Bojan, Susan, Paul, Andre, James, Ben, Luigi and of course Ivo.

The ARC crew - A big happy family!

Paul, Andre, Bojan, James, Ben, Susan, Luiggi and Ivo

André Ruegg - Swiss Citizen, found a lot of opportunities to go sailing while he lived in Sydney where he worked in his profession as IT Project Manager. After the beauty of Sydney Harbour, he added in July and August 2003 a trip from Sydney to the Whitsunday Islands where he also could brush up his sailing skills during the race weeks. He is well travelled (Australia, Europe, SE Asia, USA, Central America, Africa).

Favourite sports: running, snowboarding, diving and of course sailing.

After having resigned and now being between jobs he decided to go for a sailing sabbatical before resuming his conventional work life. André is determined to clock up another 7000 miles as he is going for ‘all or nothing’ as he said when I asked him what legs is he going to do with us.

So, Andre will be with us all the way from Adriatic to Tortola, BVI, almost three full months! I am sure we’ll be able to get along well! He already got some ‘brownie points’ as he seem to be an excellent cook! Who could resist to that art?

Luigi Chiapparini - Swiss/Italian, fell in love with sailing some years ago at the Swedish West Coast. After a couple of charter weeks with his friends he found now the opportunity to gain some more sailing experience. Luigi will be with us all the way from Dubrovnik to Tortola, BVI and boost his sailing skills as much as possible.

Susan - originally from Denmark, currently working in Dublin, Ireland. Susan traveled a lot and lived in 8 different countries. Sailed extensively on her own 45 ft ketch, Med, Atlantic, Caribbean. Other sports: golf, tennis, literature, travel, walking, interested in most things. Keen to do a transatlantic crossing and to sail South Pacific Paradise islands. Also need to get away from a demanding job and best way to stop thinking about work is to sail. Love the great open space of offshore sailing. Susan initially joined Fiu for ARC 2003 and continued to sail with Fiu on her way to Australia.

James and Ben Fisher - brothers, originally from UK and presently leaving and working in Switzerland. Big travelers with extensive sailing experience (Med, USA, Caribbean). Other sports: mountaineering, snowboarding, motorcycle racing, diving, etc. James and Ben will tell us more about themselves shortly. They will join Fiu for ARC in Las Palmas.

Paul Less - Australian, leaving and working as miner in Tasmania. Traveled extensively in USA, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Sailed in Tasmania and along Eastern coast of Australia. Would like to brush up on his navigational skills. Other sports: bushwalking. Cooking skills – no mentioned at all in his survey form! Hopefully he can do the dishes?

Bojan Koprivica - Croatian, working in IT industry in Germany. Bojan started sailing as a kid in Adriatic on a small family boat, Flamingo. With years, unfortunately, other things became more important, and he neglected his childhood love. However, Bojan can nowadays be seen more often close hauling or broad reaching. He joined the Adriatic Nautical Academy (ANA), where he refreshed his old sailing skills, added new ones and keeps learning more about the art of sailing. He took part in the last years renewal of ANA's Off Shore Training where, under the guidance of skipper Zivko Matutinovic and under the sails of a beautiful ANA No.1 Elan 45 boat, the team clocked 1300 NM from Jezera to Malta and back.

Many other crew joined us during our Caribbean and Pacific cruise

Sonny Kojic - is originally from Novi Sad (former YU) and now living in Canada. He is 36, married, with twin girls now 3 years old. Besides adoring his girls (all three of them) full-time, Sonny works in the automotive industry as a mechanical engineer (he hold M.A.Sc. from Concordia Univ., Montreal).

Sonny with his daughters Monika (L) and Lidia (R) by Detroit River.

Sonny has been entertaining the idea of getting into sailing for a long time, but, so far, had not had the fortune to live near water. As his girls are growing up, he is currently planning on buying a sailing dinghy to start practicing near home on Great Lakes. His intention is to introduce girls to the sport and maybe do some sailing together in a couple of years.

Sonny joined Fiu for a learning experience and fun sailing in the Caribbean during April 04 (Tortola to St Lucia).

Peter N. from Germany, Lesley from USA - Caribbean to Galapagos,

Paul C. and Jane from Australia - New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji and GBR

Brut S. from Slovenia - Sydney to New Zealand

Julian S. and Tom from New Zealand - Sydney to New Zealand crossing

George K. from Australia - Red Sea to Greece

Dragec from Croatia - Red Sea to Greece

as well as numerous family and friends.