MARK ETHERIDGE: Sea dogs hail supersailor Neuschäfer’s Golden Globe solo win

Some of SA’s saltiest sea dogs have reached out from around the globe to hail their compatriot Kirsten Neuschäfer’s recent Golden Globe victory.

Neuschäfer became the first South African, let alone woman, to win the gruelling round-the-world yacht race that started and finished in Les Sables-d’Olonne, France, taking in the five great capes of the world en route.

She left France on September 4 2022 and spent 235 days at sea, connecting intimately with her yacht Minnehaha without setting foot on terra firma. Fittingly, it was as South Africans celebrated Freedom Day on Thursday last week that she stepped off her craft to a hero’s welcome in France.

Business Day spoke to marine legends JJ Provoyeur, Manuel Mendes, Rick Nankin, Geoff Meek and Phil Wade to gauge the full depth of 40-year-old Neuschäfer’s feat.

Provoyeur has himself tackled a similar adventure, sailing the BOC Challenge in 1994/95 in a far bigger vessel but in which competitors were permitted to put into shore under certain conditions. He is now living in Portugal for a large part of the year.

Mendes is based at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, where he runs his own business, R&M Boatbuilders, from the East Quay Boat Yard. He was instrumental in helping Neuschäfer to prepare Minnehaha for the epic voyage.

Based in Mallorca, retired captain Phil Wade runs Marine Inspirations, a company that helps aspiring youngsters to achieve their sailing dreams. Well into his 70s now, he completed the gruelling Cape-to-Rio transatlantic race two years ago.

Just getting to the start line of the Golden Globe is no mean feat, Provoyeur said. “It’s really a big undertaking and needs huge confidence and self-ability. Many sailors have entered and been in the actual race brochure but never started.

“First and foremost you have to have an absolute love for sailing and being on the water and understand the fact of just getting a vessel from one place to another with only the wind as power —  being self-sufficient and having the dream that you can do this right around the world.”

Provoyeur said from the get-go he could see Kirsten would be a competitor and not there to make up the numbers.

“Her hourly/daily speeds were always impressive, and her whole demeanour at the false stops and rendezvous were of someone who was completely in charge. She just showed character from start to finish.”

When the time between start and finish is a leviathan-like 235 days the tests, physical and mental, come thick and fast. “One has to realise she’s on a small boat that doesn’t go very fast, averaging probably only about five knots over 30,000 sea miles. You have to have so much commitment and strength of character.”

Washing machine

The vagaries of the ocean provide various scenarios, says Provoyeur. “From my own experience when the wind doesn’t blow for days and you’re merely sitting in a millpond it can be very frustrating.

“Then the opposite experience … when you’re in this gigantic ‘washing machine’ thinking, ‘will I survive this?’. I remember thinking on one such occasion that this whole thing is so much bigger than me and the sheer natural forces around me are so grand, that it doesn’t actually even matter if I disappear!”

Neuschäfer’s humility was striking, he said. “Watching her on stage at the finish, her humility stood out. She was just ‘there and happy to be there’... 

“She’s a humble person who has achieved an incredible feat, not only for women. She’s the first woman to win this male-dominated event … She has put everything into perspective: you can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

Boatbuilder Mendes, who has sailed many of the world’s oceans single-handedly, played a key part in Minnehaha’s racing readiness.

“Kirsten’s a wonderful girl with a huge amount of experience in offshore sailing, doing boat deliveries back and forth the North and South Atlantic and then working with [polar sailing authority] Skip Novak on Pelagic Expeditions down in the Antarctic where she would have got vast experience in dealing with bad weather and being able to fix things.

“The boats used in the Golden Globe have no sophisticated equipment so she had to rely on an old Weatherfax machine, short-wave radio and single side band to hear time zones because with the sextant you have to be very accurate with your time zones.”

Two other local sailing legends, Springboks Meek and Nankin from North Sails SA played a key part in her success, Mendes said. “She had an extensive wardrobe of sails, which gave her a unique system where she could deploy two front sails, which made it easier to sail downwind.”

Speaking on the work done on Minnehaha at R&M Boatbuilders, Mendes said they did as much work as possible under the circumstances. “She was self-funded and had to borrow money to even buy the boat so we just did what we could, made the boat a bit safer, checked all her systems thoroughly and changed her mast from wood to aluminium.

“She had sailed the boat from Canada to Cape Town and then to the start again so she was at one with her boat.”

Family help was also key to Kirsten’s success, Mendes said. “Her mom lived with her on the boat while she was here in the harbour and changed and fixed things to a more solid state. She could have stayed at a hotel but the fact that she was on the yacht almost 24/7 made them such a close unit.”

Veteran sailor Meek elaborated on Minnehaha’s sails, saying they had decided to help her with better sails than she would otherwise have chosen. “We then brought sailcloth supplier Contender on board as well, persuading them she was a person to back. They were already involved in another sailor but listened to us and are super happy with her performance.

“We used their cloth on all her sails and her preparation was excellent … the large sail area made her the fastest boat in the fleet on many if not all points of sail.”

Added Nankin: “Kirsten’s knowledge of and ‘feel’ for down South was amazing. Her knowing the future weather as fronts approached and then making decisions work in the Southern Ocean was obvious in the way she handled the South Atlantic.

“The most special thing for me is her seemingly simple and humble manner in handling all the adventure and tough situations she found herself in. She just takes everything in her stride with no real fuss.”

Meanwhile, from Mallorca Wade also bid to put Kirsten’s feat into perspective. “It’s one of the most ultimate feats of endurance … I’d put it up there with summiting Mount Everest.

“Doing every little thing by yourself — cooking, sailing through the icebergs, taking catnaps where you can, navigating the shipping channels, always having to keep a lookout for floating logs/shipping containers, it’s really like playing Russian roulette — for 235 days!

“It’s massively big in global terms for this little lady from SA to first enter and then come in first!”