plan to send an eight to the Olympics. He was given support, but it was mostly left to the team and their organisers to raise the approximately $25,000 needed for the seven weeks in Europe. To keep costs down, Strachan organised for the rowers to stay in the Bavarian town of Lenggries, about an hour's drive away from the Munich regatta course. Whilst there were no dedicated rowing facilities in Lenggries, the Sylvenstein Reservoir provided good training opportunities. Beyond that, the locals were brilliant hosts and many friendships formed at the time. The team management had again ordered a shell from Donoratico, and they delivered them two boats; one built exactly as ordered, but a second that the manufacturer thought would finally address all the teams' desires. In addition, they had a Karlisch shell built by Empacher available to them, but it was not well liked. The team preferred the second Donoratico but their coach thought the Karlisch was superior. Again, Joyce was asked to use his engineering skills to make some modifications. A day after he had finished, one of the seats in the Donoratico collapsed and left that boat unusable. From then on, the Karlisch was used. The first regatta in Germany was a warm-up event at the Olympic rowing course. The New Zealanders, still using their Donoratico, were beaten by the American team. At the next regatta in Hanover, the Americans were beaten by a two–second margin, and the next day the New Zealanders beat the Australian team (second at the 1968 Olympics). A few days out from the Olympics, Earl received news that his father had died on his way to Munich. Whilst doctors had advised against travel due to a weak heart, his parents went nonetheless and his father died when they were in Italy. Earl still went ahead with the competition, and Strachan remarked later that "he still performed". The funeral had to wait until the rowers had returned to New Zealand. When the Olympic racing started, the New Zealanders won their heat comfortably. There was a false start caused by one of the officials, for which the New Zealanders received an official apology – unlike the other crews, they had not heard the recall bell and started racing in earnest. In the real heat, they eased off after the first 1000 metres but still won by 11 seconds. The semi-final was more of