Sailing | Kirsten Neuschäfer, who saved Tapio Lehtinen, made history – won a tough solo sailing race

South African Kirsten Neuschäfer won the Golden Globe Race. He arrived at the finish line in France’s Les Sables-d’Olonne on Thursday, the release states.

Neuschäfer’s, 40, career in sailing around the world lasted a good 235 days. She is the first female sailor to win a round-the-world sailing competition.

At the same time, Neuschäfer became the seventh person in the history of sailing who has sailed alone around the globe for 30,000 nautical miles (55,560 kilometers) without stops, equipment and modifications or automatic steering devices and electronic navigational aids.

The demandingness of the competition is illustrated by the fact that only three of the sixteen sailors who started the race are reaching the finish line.

In the 2018 race, five competitors reached the finish line and the last one Tapio Lehtinen.

Neuschäfer’s what makes sailing even more special is that in the middle of the race he rescued Lehtinen, who had taken part in the race, whose Asteria boat sank to the bottom of the sea on the border of the Indian Ocean and the Southern Arctic Ocean on November 18.

After Lehtinen’s suspension, Neuschäfer took second place in the GGR race, until the British, who had led the race for a long time, Simon Curwen got into trouble near Cap Horn after a large wave broke her wind rudder.

Neuschäfer fought until the end to win the race over the Indian Abhilash Tomy with. Tomy is expected to arrive at the finish line on Friday, the release states.

“If a Finn needs to be rescued at sea, there could be no one better than Kirsten for that job. I am still very grateful for the way he acted in my time of need,” Lehtinen states in the press release.

Correction 28.4.2023 at 09:52: Kirsten Neuschäfer’s sailing lasted a good 235 days, not 266 days, as mentioned earlier in the story.