News Around the World Both Antarctic circumnavigations were meant to be non-stop and


unassisted, but the first attempt in 2017 was interrupted when she was dismasted in a storm and sailed under jury rig to Cape Town for repairs. The stop meant relinquishing the ‘unassisted, non-stop’ elements of the attempt, but she resumed the voyage and completed the circuit – the first woman to do so. The second attempt, in 2022, successfully ticked off all the


requisite conditions and took 10 days off the 102-day record set by Russian Fedor Konyukhov in 2008. To replicate Konyukhov’s passage Blair was obliged to sail between 45°S and 60°S, which meant that despite twice circling the great white continent she never actually set eyes on it. During this summer’s adventures she has claimed yet more


records: shaving four days off the previous solo record from Sydney to Auckland and first woman to do so; and completing the first non-stop solo and unassisted passage around New Zealand. ‘Bob McDavitt’s weather models reckoned on a time between


16 and 18 days, so we set 17 days as the target,’ she says. After challenging and contrary weather conditions – including a major storm off the southern tip of New Zealand and inevitable long sections of slogging upwind when she expected to be romping down- wind – she crossed the finish line just ahead of target with a time of 16d 23h. ‘I really worked hard the whole way around to set a time that I


feel will be challenging to break,’ she said, before adding, ‘because I have no doubt some Kiwi will have a go soon!’ As part of her ongoing environmental mission she has logged


more than 60,000 solo miles with her 50ft water-ballasted yacht, Climate Action Now. The boat was designed and built by Robert Hicks for the 2003 Melbourne-Osaka Race, finishing third overall. Lisa acquired the boat in 2015 transforming it into a record-


setting solo crusader complete with striking hull livery comprising hundreds of multi-coloured ‘post-it’ notes with messages from her followers highlighting small actions in support of climate mitigation: ‘I run a paperless office’; ‘I always carry a bag to pick up rubbish on my beach walk’; ‘Let’s get rid of plastic bottles in our ocean’; ‘We have solar and wind turbines on our house’. Lisa’s early childhood on a remote Queensland rural property did


nothing to suggest a career as an offshore sailor and ocean-going climate activist. ‘I grew up in the Australian bush on a little solar- powered property – no mains water, or power. We pumped water up from the creek, which locals described as a blend of leaf stew and platypus piss,’ she laughs. After her parents split up Lisa moved with her mother to a coastal


town on the Sunshine Coast. Her mother got into sailing, but Lisa showed little interest until she went to university and secured a summer job as a cook and cleaner on a charter yacht in the Whit- sunday Islands, eventually working her way up to a commercial skipper’s ticket. That led to an invitation to join friends sailing from Samoa to


Hawaii, which gave her a first taste of ocean sailing. ‘I knew I wanted to do more, so I got a crappy job in a mall and launched a sponsor - ship campaign to raise $80,000 to join Gold Coast Australia for the 2012 Clipper Race around the world.’ Gold Coast Australiawon the race, with 31-year-old Lisa focused on absorbing every bit of ocean- racing experience possible. ‘I was one of those persistent noises in the skipper’s ear, constantly asking a thousand questions all the way around the world…’ Within that barrage of questions was a pointer to the direction


Lisa Blair’s sailing career would take in the future. ‘As we raced around the planet I would look at the scenarios we encountered with a full crew and try to figure out how I would deal with those situations if I was on my own,’ she says. Engaging, friendly, articulate, sociable, she seems an unlikely


candidate for long, solitary, isolated endeavours, but says accounts of early solo sailors – Robin Knox-Johnson, Kay Cottee, Jesse Martin among others – inspired her. ‘I had read a lot of solo sailing books and always thought it seemed an amazing thing to do one day when I had accumulated enough experience, maybe in 30 years’ time.


32 SEAHORSE


However, I compressed that experience into the Clipper Race, which begged the question of what else I was capable of. Solo sailing seemed the obvious next challenge.’ No half-measures, her first singlehanded venture was the 2014


Trans-Tasman Race. ‘I was the only woman to sign up for that race… and the only competitor without a boat! Oh yeah, and I had never sailed solo before.’ At the last minute she borrowed an aluminium home-built Van Der Stadt 34 and set out across the Tasman Sea, bound for the start at New Plymouth on New Zealand’s west coast. After a double crossing of that forbidding sea and a respectable


finish (‘above the fold’), she returned the boat safe and sound to its owner but thirsted for more. ‘I actually asked if I could borrow his boat again, but he encouraged me to raise money to buy a boat for bigger projects, suggesting I should have a crack at Fedor Konyukhov’s round-Antarctica record. He was clearly absolutely crazy.’ Two and a half years later she had raised the money to buy the


Hick 50-footer and put together a climate action mission, combining raising environmental awareness with scientific data-collecting in the Southern Ocean. During the Clipper Race she had been alarmed by areas of ocean choked with plastic and dead zones stretching thousands of miles with no sign of a single living creature. On her second Antarctic voyage she collected data samples every day and found alarming levels of microplastics in every one – even down at Point Nemo, the loneliest place on the planet where the nearest living humans are in the International Space Station When at sea, apart from tending the boat and planning weather


strategies with New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt, she writes regular blogs for her website (lisablairsailstheworld.com) and corresponds with her supporters. In between these tasks she reads – ‘I am not much of a music person; I like to listen to the boat’ – and takes 20-minute microsleeps, always setting an ultrasonic alarm that ‘hurts your ears’. Lisa Blair’s exploits attract a wide audience: her first Antarctic


attempt brought 1.8 million new visitors to her website and 3.5 million hits on social media. She has written a book, Facing Fear: the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica, and a movie, Ice Maiden, has just been released. She is also in demand as a public speaker. As extreme weather events continue to make headlines the scale


of the challenge remains as daunting as ever, but Lisa says support for action has definitely grown. When she began her personal crusade nearly a decade ago climate change was not widely accepted as a pressing issue and she often met widespread hostility. ‘As I tried to create a positive association with the climate conversation I copped a lot of abuse; in most ports I was shouted at by fishing boats. ‘Now, with the same boat carrying the same message, the media


seek us out because they want positive stories within the hungry sustainability space. And the fishing boats don’t shout at me any more. Those are tangible indicators of how public attitudes have changed.’ Ivor Wilkins


SPAIN The brain in the shadow Uruguayan by birth but then living in Brazil from the age of 13, Horacio Carabelli follows family tradition as a naval architect. The influence of the shipyard that his father had in Mar de Plata naturally started his love for the sea and boats. His sailing record includes three Volvo Race campaigns with Brasil 2005-06, Ericsson 4 2008-09 (sailing both times for Torben Grael), and then with Telefónica2011-12. This will be Carabelli’s fifth America’s Cup; in 2007 he debuted with Victory Challenge before joining Artemis in 2013, Groupama in 2017 and then Luna Rossa in 2021 and here again in 2024. Seahorse: Your fifth America’s Cup already… Horacio Carabelli: True and now we are getting older (laughing). So I hope this one has a successful ending. SH: What is your role as Design & Construction Co-ordinator? HB: It all starts with immersing yourself in the latest rules. Drawing up a strategy from the moment the challenge is launched until the final rules are published… to follow a course you must know the


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