Over 300 people attended the University of Southern Maine Hannaford auditorium on Sunday, March 3 to honor Kirsten Neuschäfer, winner of the Golden Globe Race, solo sail around the world. The Portland Yacht Club sponsored the event which allowed everyone to hear Kirsten speak about her experience accompanied by photographs from the race.

Kirsten happened to be in the U.S. to receive a prestigious award in New York City from the Cruising Club of America’s annual awards including the Blue Water Medal, first awarded 100 years ago.

Kirsten is the first woman to complete the Golden Globe Race; the first woman to win it; the first South African sailor to win a nonstop, unassisted round-the-world event; and the first woman to win any round-the-world race, including solo and fully crewed races, nonstop or with stops.

Kirsten and her Cape George 36 sailboat, Minnehaha, sailed for 235 days. Her official time was 233 days, 18 hours, 43 minutes and 47 seconds. During the race, she diverted her course to rescue fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen, whose boat sank. As it turned out, she was closest to his location and able to help him get aboard a Chinese freighter that had also changed course to help with the rescue. From that point on, Kirsten returned to her intended course and ultimate first place finish in France.

The Golden Globe race is unique in that boats could not be built after 1988. They had to be within a specified length and without any modern communication devices. The sailors could only use celestial navigation, charts and a compass to guide their course. Seventeen sailors began the race, three finished. The race began and ended in Les Sables D’Olonne, France.  

I first met Kirsten in Thomaston at the Lyman-Morse shipyard. She was there with a boat, Pelagic, which she had captained for Skip Novak’s Pelagic Expeditions to South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. It so happened, at that very moment, Kirsten had made the decision to participate in the Golden Globe Race and needed some publicity photographs to help her gain recognition, and possible funding, for the race. She, along with staff at the yard, were prepping Pelagic for a refit and she had the glamorous project of freeing the boat’s hull from a substantial accumulation of barnacles.

Kirsten took on her project without sponsors. Through help and support from friends, her own resources and hard work, and loans, she managed to pull together enough funds to purchase the Cape George 36 and do the work required to prepare Minnehaha for the great voyage. There is a “Go Fund Me” to help if so inclined.

An interesting aside. We ran into local sailing enthusiasts known to many in Boothbay Harbor, Ginny and Dean Marvin. Dean is commodore of the Portland Yacht Club and was instrumental in arranging a most informative gathering in honor of Kirsten’s accomplishment. Photo is of Dean sharing the PYC burgee.