Hi! We’re Barbara and Daniel, a couple from Austria with a shared passion for sailing, historic ships, and ambitious restoration projects.

We met at a sailing school where we both worked as instructors during the summer holidays. Daniel was studying communications and had always been fascinated by filmmaking. Barbara was just about to begin her training as a ship mechanic aboard a cargo ferry — experience that now proves invaluable in restoring Flying Coney.

Back then, we spent every free moment on the water. Barbara already had a background in sail racing, and it didn’t take long before we joined forces as a sailing team. We started out on The Pirate a charming but slow and heavy boat and quickly realized we wanted something faster. So we moved to the F18, a high-performance catamaran. It was challenging, but incredibly rewarding to compete in this class.

Eventually, we made the leap to the Olympic foiling catamaran, where we found ourselves racing against some of the best sailors in the world.

But over time, we began to dream of something bigger and a little less aerodynamic. We wanted a traditional sailing ship. Something with history, soul, and room to share the journey with fellow sailing enthusiasts.

It didn’t take long to realize that buying a fully restored ship was far beyond our budget. Luckily, we found Flying Coney.

Flying Coney was in poor condition, which made her (somewhat) affordable. But we saw her potential right away. We knew that with time, patience, and a lot of work, we could bring her back to life and transform her into the sailing ship of our dreams.

And that’s how this adventure began.

We’ve always wanted to share this journey with others. Sailing and restoring traditionally rigged ships is a skill set that fewer and fewer people have today. By sharing our journey on YouTube, we hope to inspire others and make these skills more visible and accessible for everyone.