Kirsten Neuschafer

Guest Speaker Kirsten has been sailing dinghies since her childhood, but sailing since 2006 as a profession. From sailing training to sailboat deliveries, she built a diverse set of skills and experience. Kirsten’s longest single-handing was a delivery from Portugal to South Africa with only a wind-vane as self-steering, on an old and maintenance-intensive 32 foot ferro-cement sloop. In 2015, she started working on Pelagic, a high latitude expedition boat, making trips to South Georgia, The Antarctic Peninsula, Patagonia and the Falklands.

Kirsten has sailed several film crews down to capture the beauty of the Antarctic. She was featured in National Geographic series “Wild_Life Resurrection Island with Bertie Gregory” as she sailed his crew throughout South Georgia to shed light on the beautiful ecosystems and hardships they’ve faced. She also sailed and was a support vessel for several crews from the newest BBC series “Seven Worlds, One Planet” for footage of leopard seal predation against gentoo penguins and albatross behavior from Bird Island South Georgia.

Along with sailing, she also enjoys other solitary adventures. She cycled from Europe back home to South Africa (15000 km over approximately one year) on her own when she was just 22. She traveled throughout the Northwest and Central Africa into Southern Africa and eventually ending in Cape Agulhas. The trip brought trials and tribulations but was life-enriching in every sense, giving her the deepest appreciation of Africa and her people.

Kirsten won the Golden Globe Race 2022, a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation. This retro race is based on the first solo circumnavigation race that took place in 1968. In order to stay true to the original circumnavigation, boats are all older designs, no bigger than 36 foot- and modern navigational technology, like GPS, is not permitted. The route for the race began in France, down the Atlantic, east-about the Southern Ocean, and back up the Atlantic to France- an approximate distance of 30,000 nautical miles and anywhere from 7 to 9 months or more at sea. This is largely a race of attrition, luck, seamanship – and adventure!