Lisa Blair breaks more sailing records
Record-breaking skipper Lisa Blair has, subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, become the first woman to circumnavigate Australia solo, non-stop and without assistance.
The 34-year-old returned home safely to Sydney on 17 December 2018 after a 58 day voyage covering more than 6,000 miles.
Blair faced plenty of challenges during her circumnavigation on board her Robert Hick-designed 50ft (15.25m) yacht Climate Action Now, which was originally purpose built to race in the 2003 Double Handed Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race.
Her final leg to Sydney saw the former Clipper Race crewmember sailing in some of the worst storms Australia had seen in the last 12 months, with 35-40 knot winds and five-metre waves.
Blair, who started sailing at the age of 22, also had to make emergency repairs to her yacht when a hull skin fitting failed, flooding her sail locker with more than 500 litres of water, as well as fix her autopilot and replace broken preventer lines.
Blair is no stranger to setting records. On 25 July 2017, she made history when she became the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica with one stop.
The voyage was made even more remarkable after
Climate Action Now was dismasted in the Southern Ocean in 40-knots winds and 7-9 metre seas. Blair had to cut away the mast and repair a hole in the deck before motorsailing to Cape Town under jury rig having been given additional fuel from a diverted container ship.
After two months of repairs to Climate Action Now, Blair sailed back to the position of her dismasting and crossed her track, re-sailing the section again unassisted before continuing on with her voyage.
Blair, who has previously worked for Alex Thomson Racing, has since announced her intention to become the first person to sail around the Arctic solo and non-stop.
For now though, she is happy to take some time off, although as she wrote on her blog, her drive to start planning her next adventure is never far away. ‘I am going to take a year to catch up to the rest of my life but you can be sure that there will be another adventure in my future. Thanks again to everyone for following along and I will keep you updated moving forward.’
Congratulating Blair, Clipper Race co-founder, Sir Robin Knox-johnston, said: ‘This is an impressive achievement and I am very pleased that a member of the Clipper Race family has once again made their mark on the world stage.
‘Lisa’s feat is just another example of the incredible things our crew achieve after taking on the Clipper Race and I look forward to seeing what she accomplishes next,’ he added.