A world first

We speak to Dee Caffari about her attempt to be the first woman to sail singlehanded around the world non-stop the wrong way

It is unfortunate feature of the era that we live in that almost all of the 'firsts' have been done and we now are subject to long, contrived and increasingly dubious claims along the lines of first black/Jewish/lesbian to do xyz in the shortest/fastest/widest, etc.

It is therefore with some excitement that there are currently not one but two English women attempting to be the first to become 'first woman to sail around the world westabout' (against the prevailing winds, the wrong way). While Sam Brewster successfully completed a solo westabout circumnavigation in the mid-1990s, she made a stopover in Brazil and no woman has yet succeeded in making the voyage non-stop. Genuinely this is a first.

To be fair only four men have claimed the solo non-stop westabout record: Rugged Scotsman Chay Blyth was the first to set the record in the lethargic time of 292 days back in 1971 (this was partly in response to Robin Knox-Johnston becoming the first man to make the first ever non-stop solo circumnavigation - in his case eastabout - but in an even slower time of 313 days during the 1968-9 Sunday Times Golden Globe race, from which Blyth had retired. The two have been playing tit-for-tat ever since professionally and on the water). It was only in 1994 that Blyth's record was finally beaten by Mike Golding aboard his Challenge 67 Group 4, reducing the time to a more satisfactory 161 days. Philippe Monnet then took this time down to 151 days before, serial solo round the world sailor Jean-Luc van den Heede demolished it, setting the present record of 122 days 14 hours 3 minutes and 49 seconds aboard his purpose-built aluminium 26m yacht, Adrien last year (read about this here).

At present Global Challenge skipper Denise 'Dee' Caffari is lining up to become the first woman to claim this record as is Debra Searle. Back in 1997 when she was known as Debra Veal, Searle famously set out to row across the Atlantic with her (now ex-) husband, who early on in their voyage decided he'd had enough and wanted out. She went on to complete the row alone in a time of 111 days.

While ostensibly very similar, the Caffari and Searle campaigns are significantly different. Caffari has logged tens of thousands of miles as skipper of the Global Challenge yacht Imagine It. Done. Before that she was with Alex Thomson's company Formula 1 Sailing skippering boats in offshore races such as the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race and racing the Fastnet on board Hugo Boss having previously cut her teeth working on Mike Golding's 67ft Challenge yacht. In comparison Debra Searle has up until this year had no previous in sailing and hers is more of an 'in at the deep end' campaign, with her being fast tracked into the role by UKSA and Offshore Challenges. Thus while Caffari's departure date is less than a month away, Searle's is closer to being a year away.

Caffari's record attempt bears striking ressemblance to that of Mike Golding's. Golding set off on his record having just returned from skippering Group 4 in the first BT Global Challenge. Likewise Caffari has just finished the Global Challenge as a skipper and she too will be making the attempt in the familiar craft which she recently sailed around the world with a full crew, although now renamed Aviva after her new sponsor (more on this shortly).

As with the Golding and Sam Brewster record attempts, the idea for this endeavour was planted in Caffari's mind by the wily Chay Blyth. "In Cape Town we were having a chat about plans for after the race and I mentioned to him that I was keen to carry on sailing, and after he picked himself up off the floor through shock - thinking he would have managed to put me off by now - he said what you should consider is doing the route again singlehanded non-stop."

In this last Global Challenge Imagine It.Done posted mixed results, but the most memorable part of their voyage was when 59 year old crewman John Masters became severely ill mid-Southern Ocean on the second leg requiring two vessels in the race to divert to provide additional medication and finally for Masters to be airlifted off in the middle of the Southern Ocean by helicopter from where he was taken to the Chatham Islands and then to New Zealand.

Caffari continues her story: "It was one of those throw-away comments and I didn’t really pay too much attention, but of course it sat in the back of my mind then and on the leg up to Boston, the weather was really nice and it was like ‘could I sail one of these on my own? Would I want to sail one of these on my own?’ So I was deciding on the way and then from Boston to La Rochelle I thought about what changes I’d want to make to the boat to make it possible and on the way home, it was 'if I want this to happen I need to put a package together and try and sort it out'."

Most impressive about Caffari's campaign is just how quickly she found her sponsor - just six weeks. Blyth was highly supportive and allowed her to use his name. Caffari says through her work corporate sailing with Challenge Business and Formula 1 she had met a large number of people and in her sponsor hunting she started out by sending emails to many of these or other contacts she'd made during the Global Challenge, in "Director-type roles".

"The email was mainly saying that I had come back from the Global Challenge, had a fantastic experience and I had this opportunity where I had a tried and tested boat that could be modified and I could go and get one of the last firsts left in sailing. But because I knew it was just a matter of time before somebody else did it, I was pushing to make it a quick turn around to go this year. So I was asking for people in those positions for their guidance of who I should talk to and how I should go about it rather than asking for money."

Incredibly one of these contacts bit hard in the form of a director of Aviva, the world's sixth-largest insurance group and the biggest in the UK. "With the essence being on timing, they are launching a forward-thinking campaign to raise their brand awareness, start a new section of marketing and they wanted innovative, inspirational, forward-thinking people, that plan in advance, etc. It just went with their whole new campaign and the timing just happened to fit - it was something that they could use and help launch the brand name and this whole package of forward thinking and all the things could coincide together. So I was really lucky and timing was probably key on that one."

Aviva includes the merger of several companies and take-overs, one notably being Norwich Union who previously sponsored a boat in the Global Challenge. "Fortunately on the Board of Directors there are a couple of keen sailors, which often helps," Caffari continues. "If you look at a lot of the Directors of companies sponsoring yachting, there are normally a couple of keen sailors there and they can help encourage the idea. I was fortunate that I picked a company that was enthusiastic for this kind of thing."

This week Aviva is due to emerge from the yard in Plymouth where Andrew Roberts and his technical team at Challenge Business have been completing modification work to turn Caffari's 72 footer in a vessel suitable for the singlehanding. Among the modifications made to the boat are the fitting of an autopilot, roller furling headsails and a 1.8m long bowsprit to take asymmetric spinnakers.

To help her handle the sail plan singlehanded a pedestal and 'universal' winch have also been fitted. "Most of the sheet feeds we can feed to that winch and it has a much bigger drum and three speeds so the line speed is much quicker. We have also fitted a few turning blocks and snatch blocks to allow the halyards to run back. The thought of taking a reef out and having to winch conventionally the whole way round would result in my losing the will to live... If I can feed it back to the universal winch and grind it up which will be a lot more productive. I have to put it into practice mind you..." says Caffari.

Down below the accommodation has been modified to make it more suitable for singlehanding with the creation of her own cabin.

In Caffari's favour is her extreme familiarity with her steed, as she puts it: "it is quite nice knowing that if I decide to shut the hatch and wait for the weather the boat will still be in one piece when I come up on deck. I am not having to test an unknown, but work with a known quantity."

However there is still the matter of testing the mods and she has just four weeks to make sure these are all working before her departure date from Portsmouth on 20 November. While fixing a departure date for a record attempt is not the norm - you usually wait for the best weather pattern to leave on - Caffari says it is more important to be down into the Southern Ocean by January. Also, while she may leave Portsmouth on 20 November, the actual start line for the record is between Ushant and Lizard, so if a front or weather system passes through she can always sail slowly towards the line.

"And the boat is going to go through some pretty tough weather and she is designed to do that, so whether I get the tough weather at the beginning, middle or the end, it is just one of those things - I’ll just get on with it and get going," she adds.

Aside from using Andrew Roberts' technical team at Challenge Business, who know the boat well and were also involved in the conversion of Mike Golding and Sam Brewster's yachts into vessels capable of being singlehanded, Caffari will be relying on Mike Broughton for weather routing and Harry Spedding "to scream and shout at".

Obviously the primary goal is simply to be the first woman to sail singlehanded non-stop around the world westabout, but in the process Caffari says she will be using her old boss Mike Golding's progress as a reference. While Group 4 was also a Challenge yacht, it was of the older 67ft variety and since then the company have acquired a new generation of 72 footers. Caffari says that data from the Global Challenges have shown these go the same speed as the 67s in the Southern Ocean but are on average 1.5 knots faster in the Atlantic. "That is where the gains are going to be made if I can make them. Hopefully working with Mike [Broughton] we can make some headway on the Atlantic legs and therefore aim to try and stay ahead of Mike’s goal. That would be fantastic."

The downside of sailing a 72 footer instead of a 67 is that the sail plan is proportionally bigger. "I have got new sails and in the warm comfort of the office, it was getting quite exciting talking about bigger sails," admits Caffari. "Then we had a bit of a reality check and decided that sails that I could handle and continue to use rather than ones I’d be too scared to use or trash straight away would be more beneficial. So we’ve kept the sail size the same and I've got the A-sail which should make it more user friendly." Thus is unlikely she'll be using the spinnaker pole too often.

Of her competition from Debra Searle, Caffari says she welcomes it and finds it interesting that she and Searle both have similar backgrounds in teaching and having sports science degrees. The two met when Searle was gaining sailing experience aboard Pindar's yacht in the Global Challenge. "I think it is great that Debra is up for doing it as well, and hopefully I can give her a time for her to go out and beat, and then there will be two of us who would have done it, which is a great achievement from having no females having done it and a small number of males, given the large number of people who have sailed around the world now."

Caffari anticipates that she and Searle will not be alone though. Her trip is likely to generate much press interest and this she thinks will motivate some female sailors in French to speak nicely to Jean-Luc van den Heede to see if they can use his purpose-built record-holder to make an attempt.

"That will increase the number of people doing it, but all sorts of things could happen. The confidence builder I am sat on is having a tried and tested boat. It may not be the fastest way of doing it, but it is a more guaranteed way of doing it. It is designed for the purpose - built to go the wrong way through the Southern Ocean and you know that when you are floating through the Doldrums!"

Tomorrow read our interview with Debra Searle about plans for her attempt...