It is a heroine of singular modesty, coupled with a real sailor, that the port of Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée) welcomed on Thursday April 27, shortly before 10 p.m. Barefoot, her face scorched by the sun and swimming in sailing overalls faded by almost eight months at sea, Kirsten Neuschäfer herself took charge of throwing her hawser in the direction of the pontoon, to moor there Memory hahathe nearly 11-meter sailboat thanks to which she entered into legend.
“It’s the experience of a lifetime, a moment I will never forget”, said in French this 40-year-old South African, radiant after her victory in the second edition of the Golden Globe Race (GGR). This performance made her the first woman to win a race around the world via the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn), solo, non-stop and without assistance, but also without modern means of navigation and communication since the rules of this race prohibit them.
The navigator was therefore unaware of her position, almost to the end. She also did not know that she was part, with the Indian Abhilash Tomy, expected Saturday April 29, and the Austrian Michael Guggenberger, still off the Canary Islands, the only three competitors still in the race out of sixteen starters. And even less that the Briton Simon Curwen – left the official classification after a stop in Chile to repair damage – had beaten her by ten hours in Sables-d’Olonne.
“You are the first! »
“I expected the worst and hoped for the best, she confided. In order not to be disappointed, I preferred to assume that Abhilash had arrived, and then 7 miles from the line, someone, on a boat that came to meet me, shouted to me: “You are the first!” . »
The Earthlings being devoid of patience, the question of her possible participation in the Vendée Globe – which no woman has ever won – did not take long to fuse. Kirsten Neuschäfer smiled, amused. The financing and operating budget of the ultra-sophisticated 18.28 meter couriers, the only ones admitted to this other solo circumnavigation, represent, for the time being, another universe.
Barely landed, the amateur sailor is indeed preparing to sell Memory haha (“Eau qui rit”, in Sioux language), unearthed in 2019 in North America and retyped on Prince Edward Island, Canada. For its acquisition and configuration for the GGR, it went into debt of 250,000 dollars and still has to repay a third of this sum.
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