What’s the one thing you instinctively knew how to do, before anyone taught you? For Pretoria-born Kirsten Neuschäfer, it was sailing. ‘I innately understood the wind, the water, how the sails work, the keel, and the pressure against the water without anyone explaining it to me in the physics sense,’ she recalls. ‘I didn’t grow up sailing, but it was in me and always felt right to me.’ Kirsten had zero racing experience when she entered the Golden Globe Race, which is the world’s longest, non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. They say a race is won before you leave the dock, and the one thing she did have, was years of preparation through an unbridled sense of adventure, the grit to see things through and her experience as a skipper for deliveries and charters with over 300 000 kilometres covered offshore and in the Southern Ocean.
Surprisingly, Kirsten grew up on a small holding on the outskirts of Pretoria, far from any ocean. ‘We spent a lot of time with animals and in nature and would hike in the Magaliesburg, go to the Kruger and down to the coast once or twice a year,’ she says. Her first access to sailing was on a dinghy in the Hartbeespoort Dam with family friends. She attributes her success in the sport to the completion of a dream her father had. ‘When he was young, my father wanted to sail around the world and had started building a boat before he met my mom. That dream fell by the wayside but I found old photos of them sitting on the unfinished boat in their bell bottoms and remember thinking how cool that was.’
Still, Kirsten’s earliest aspirations were far from the water. Her adventurous spirit led her on a gap year (that turned into five), working in the US, Canada and Europe doing all manner of jobs from wilderness guide to husky trainer, culminating in her cycling home to South Africa from Europe. Why fly when you can cycle? She was 22 at the time and her parents thought she had gone mad. ‘My mom, especially, was so stressed; we had no cellphones back in those days, so they never knew which country I was in or where I was sleeping,’ she recalls. Back on home soil, after an adventure of a lifetime, she decided to pursue sailing as a career.
While there’s a lot of money to be made in the sailing and superyacht industries, even at entry-level, that was never the appeal for Kirsten. ‘I’ve used it as a profession to earn my living, yes, but it’s more for the joy of sailing, being close to nature and sailing as a sport,’ she asserts. Her favourite thing about sailing is the fact that you’re using pure elements to move between continents on a piece of plastic in an environment that humans don’t belong in. ‘It’s an incredible sense of freedom.’
THE ART OF WINNING
The idea to enter the 2022 Golden Globe Race came from Kirsten’s desire for adventure and a challenge. Kirsten says, ‘I followed the 2018 Golden Globe Race and became increasingly enthralled by it. This was a true adventure race – celestial navigation, no instruments, no modern weather info. It seemed like just the thing I would want to do.’
The race is largely recognised as the most demanding exploit and human challenge for any individual in any sporting event on the planet. First established in 1968, the Golden Globe Race sees solo sailors competing to achieve the fastest time around the world via the five great Capes. Held every four years, the race pays homage to the sailing methods and rules from the original 1968 race: entrants may only use the same type or similar equipment and technology race patron Sir Robin Knox-Johnston used onboard his winning yacht of that year. Sailors may not enter any port, but are given the opportunity, albeit brief, to pass through certain checkpoints to hand over navigational notes, photos or letters. They may not receive any material assistance or additional sustenance at any time during the race. All of these are disqualifiable offences.
Preparing a boat for an eight-month non-stop race is incredibly hard and physically demanding – and it’s what races are won or lost on. ‘I’d done most of the work on the boat with my own hands, so I knew it inside out,’ Kirsten explains. ‘We took no shortcuts. If we upgraded something and it wasn’t good enough, we ripped it out and started again.’ The focus was on the boat’s strength rather than its speed for it to go the distance. ‘I had good experience in practising the seamanship required to preserve the boat and that was definitely a trump card for me and gave me immense confidence as a sailor.’
The race’s start and finish were at Les Sables-d’Olonne in France. Lanzarote (Canaries Islands), Table Bay (Cape Town) and Storm Bay (Hobart) were the checkpoints – proof-of-life pauses where the sailors would drift, do interviews with the organisers (without disembarking, of course) and hand over film and photo footage. With quite a few seasoned sailors on the roster of 16 in the 2022 race, competition was stiff. But Kirsten wasn’t unnerved by that.
‘I didn’t really focus much on the others before the race; however, the Frenchman, Damien Guillou was looking like the most professional and favoured competitor. The UK’s Simon Curwen also turned out to be good competition. The better the competition, the more you’re pushed to be better yourself.’
Routine at sea was very important says Kirsten. ‘A lot of my day revolved around celestial navigation. You need to keep accurate time and we weren’t allowed modern or battery-operated timepieces. I got the old-school SSB signal off the radio, set my wristwatch or chronometer, and did a morning sight on the sun. I would then do my calculations for my position line, and do the same routine at noon, then I’d have a more accurate route on my chart, so that was important.
‘To keep an accurate log, I wrote in my logbook at least once every hour, getting up during the night to do so. I spent time tweaking the sails, getting the boat going faster, doing maintenance and inspections. During calm weather, I’d jump over the side of the boat to check that nothing was growing on the hull because that slows you down a lot. And I would climb up on top of the mast to ensure there was no damage. You want to prevent catastrophic things happening by keeping an eye on everything, so that takes up most of your time.’
Eating well and getting enough sleep were also important. Nothing could be replenished during the nearly nine-month-long voyage. Kirsten’s diet consisted of rice, pasta, canned food, dried snacks and legumes. ‘I had some onions that lasted till the end, and I was given 100 jars of heat-preserved meals as a gift by a French chef. I also had fishing tackle in case I ran out of food or decided to fish, but I didn’t need it.’
Ironically, her worst days during the race weren’t about navigating rough seas but being becalmed. ‘I suffered two weeks with no wind and I couldn’t make the boat move, which was extremely frustrating,’ she recalls. ‘I knew I had been in the lead but I wasn’t sure anymore and staying positive became a real challenge.’ The important part of this experience was enjoyment says Kirsten. ‘You can’t be out there suffering the whole time. I didn’t want to go out there and say “that was a gruelling experience”. I wanted to say “this was amazing and enriching in every way”.’
Some of Kirsten’s best moments were encounters with wildlife, such as a young minke whale that had been swimming alongside her boat for some time. ‘I dropped sail and jumped into the water to see if the whale would stay. It swam under me and turned over on its back to make eye contact. The longer I stayed in the water, the calmer we both got. I drifted with it for the best part of two hours. That was the most touching experience I’ve ever had.’
Kirsten’s sportsmanship was on full display during the race when fellow competitor Tapio Lehtinen reported his yacht had flooded from the stern and had sunk. Being the nearest yacht, she activated her emergency GPS and rerouted to rescue him.
LESSONS FOR LIFE
After 233 days, 20 hours, 43 minutes and 47 seconds at sea solo, Kirsten crossed the finish line to win the race and mark her entry into the record books as the first woman to complete and win any round-the-world race via the great Capes. She also finished 79 days ahead of the inaugural winner Knox-Johnston. Of 16 sailors, only three completed the race. The rest dropped out because of breakage and two were disqualified because they had to stop and go ashore. As a solo sailor, you’re responsible for everything and have to complete the daily tasks that are crucial for navigation regardless of seasickness or bad weather. ‘That forces you to be completely self-sufficient.’ says Kirsten. ‘Winning felt fantastic! It’s an unforgettable moment when all the hard work pays off and a dream comes to an end in the best way possible,’ she beams. ‘Sailing taught me that when you think it’s too difficult to go on, you can still go on.’
WANT TO GO SAILING?
The Royal Cape Yacht Club, situated in the Port of Cape Town, is one of the Mother City’s best-kept secrets with expansive views of Table Mountain and a marina full of yachts gracefully moored beside a sundowner sundeck. The restaurant is open to the public and is the perfect setting for a romantic dinner or casual lunch with friends.
Whether you’re a passionate sailor, looking to start sailing, or simply want to belong to a community with an abiding passion for the sea, the Royal Cape Yacht Club has a variety of tailored membership options. And you don’t need to own a boat in order to join. Membership gives you access to exclusive events and gatherings, as well as access to a network of prestigious yacht clubs around the world.
Email [email protected] or go to rcyc.co.za/membership/
Lindiwe Mciteka
