How one woman's life of adventure led to victory in the ultimate sailing race

Kirsten Neuschafer has many stories to tell. Les Carpenter hears her latest: how she came to triumph in the Golden Globe, a test of skill and mental fortitude unlike any other

- Les Carpenter

Crimson flares dyed the evening sky a blazing red as Kirsten Neuschafer guided her sailboat into the French port of Les Sables-d’Olonne on 27 April. Eight months earlier, she had left this harbour as the lone woman in a 16-entrant, around-the-world race in which solo competitors were required to use 54-year-old technology and prohibited from making stops.

During 235 days at sea, Neuschafer had only a vague knowledge of her place in the standings of the Golden Globe Race. When told by event organisers that she had won, all she could do was stare in surprise and blurt: “Really?”

Since leaving her family farm outside Pretoria, South Africa, as a teenager, Neuschafer, 41, has led a life of endless adventure: hitchhiking on ships to the Arctic, training huskies in the icy wilderness, bicycling across Africa and leading sailing expeditions to the bottom of the globe. But she had never done anything quite like the Golden Globe Race. Very few have.

This was only the second Golden Globe Race since it was revived in 2018 as a replica of the famous 1968 venture by the same name during which nine men attempted to circle the planet in sailboats. (Only one completed the circuit; another was declared dead by suicide.) It’s less a competition and more a fight to keep mind and boat intact while sailing with only instruments and communication devices available in 1968, stopping just four times at designated spots to check in with race officials in nearby boats.

Even then, the sailors aren’t allowed to leave their boats and can’t take on supplies, relying instead on whatever they packed before the trip. Aside from satellite phones used for emergencies, they are essentially on their own. “These people are fucking crazy,” Neuschafer’s friend Alicia Biggart says.