South African sailor Kirsten Neuschaefer, winner of the 2023 Golden Globe Race and first woman to win the solo around the world trophy on now vintage boats, and first woman ever to sail around the world. The 39-year-old navigator, aboard the long keel Caper George 36, rigged with a cutter and launched in 1988, returned to Les Salbes d’Olonne from where she, along with the other sailors, had left on 4 September last. “A crazy adventure”, wrote the ocean navigator Giancarlo Pedote on social media about him, eighth in the latest edition of the Vendée Globe on his Imoca Prysmian, a completely different boat from the displacement, and non-planing ones, to which the Golden is reserved globe.
Neuschaefer was the only woman entered in the regatta, reserved for long keel boats built without the use of modern fibers and at least 35 years old. You on board traditional navigation, without electronic and computer equipment: sextant, windvane gear, compass and nautical charts. The only exception for the connections is the shortwave SSB radio and the satellite to be used only in emergencies.