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Human Interest
Olympic Sailor Iain Murray Eyes the Main Sale
By Bridget Carter , The Australian Newspaper
Dec 1, 2008, 10:50

Iain Murray
It may not seem that houses and boats have a lot in common, but for Australian Olympic sailor Iain Murray they have gone hand in hand since his youth. It was a background building boats that enabled Murray to buy cheap houses in Sydney's western suburbs as a teenager, do them up himself, and then sell them ...

"I used to come home at the age of 13 and would go straight to my father's factory and build boats," Murray says.

"We had blades and tools and bits and pieces, so I was trained.

"I did my apprenticeship in a funny way, probably from the age of 10."

Murray is best known to the public as the Olympic sailor who helped Alan Bond clinch the America's Cup victory for Australia at Rhode Island in 1983 and who won a record six consecutive 18ft skiff world titles.

But in property circles, people also associate Murray with various high-profile residential projects around Sydney and, more recently, the Dee Why Grand on the northern beaches through his development company, Murlan.

Murray says his property career began even before his one on the water. His mother's family was involved in the industry, and he started buying and selling houses as a teenager.

Originally from Seaforth in Sydney's north, he moved on from building houses on a speculative basis in Sydney's western suburbs to various small projects around Manly.

"Everything I did in my life was young," he says.

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Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey at the 2008 Olympics



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