Acclaimed solo sailor Lisa Blair to set off on new World Record attempt tomorrow
Record-breaking solo sailor Lisa Blair will embark on a new World Record sailing
attempt tomorrow, April 7 th at 8am (NZST) to establish an Auckland to Auckland, New
Zealand, sailing record over more than 2,200 nm on a circumnavigation not yet recorded.
Only last month she set a fastest time record for Sydney to Auckland as the first woman and
solo monohull record of 8 days, 3hrs and 19 minutes, taking over 4 days off the existing
record, to be ratified by World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
Lisa will steer her yacht Climate Action Now from Westhaven Marina to a start off Rangitoto
Island, supported by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), then head north out
to Great Barrier Island beginning a journey rounding New Zealand’s northernmost point at
Cape Reinga where two oceans collide as she crosses from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman
Sea.
The public can view her live tracker on the website and social posts each day.
The anticipated 18-day voyage will take her down the west coast of New Zealand’s North
Island heading into a predicted storm force wind system around New Plymouth where the
imposing Mount Taranaki impacts the weather system before she crosses Cook Strait and
into headwinds all down the West Coast of the South Island.
As she reaches the south Fiordland region she will have no shelter from the Southern Ocean
storms and dangerous swells before pressing south to round Stewart Island and the
Southwest Cape where the sea depth dramatically reduces from 5km to 50 metres on the
shelf causing noted rogue waves.
Turning northwards past Dunedin headwinds are again predicted and major commercial
fishing grounds with long line nets will provide a hazard before heading into major
commercial and recreational boating regions all the way up the coast. This will test her
resilience with 20-minute micro sleeps the whole journey home to avoid dangerous traffic
and hazards.
The record, to be adjudicated RNZYS in collaboration (CYCA) and WSSRC, will require her
course to enclose the whole of New Zealand including all rocks and islands lying 8nm
offshore – a rhumb line distance of 2,200nm, although her journey will be much longer to
sail.
Lisa is an ardent promoter of climate action with her several world record journeys
involving the collection microplastic samples for scientific analysis and her awareness raising
of ocean pollution issues as well as advocacy for solutions and change for the health of the
ocean.
“I want to see a happy and healthy planet and people won’t protect what they can’t
understand so I try to share my love of the ocean and this planet with my records. I think
adventurers have a responsibility to become story tellers and communicators,” said Lisa,
who was named 2022 Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
Lisa’s sustainability journey first started in 2012 while sailing around the world in the Clipper
Round the World Yacht Race.
“We were more than 20 days from land sailing across the Southern Ocean from South Africa
to New Zealand. I was at the helm looking out when we crested a wave and there, off our
bow was a Styrofoam box floating past. We were thousands of miles from land in the most
remote regions of the planet and I was seeing plastic. I couldn’t believe it.”
In 2015 Lisa launched her Climate Action Now message and began collecting post it note
messages from people in the public. Lisa’s yacht Climate Action Now is adorned with
thousands of messages of environmental actions from members of the community.
Lisa is the current world-record holder for sailing solo, non-stop and unassisted around
Antarctica in 2022, breaking the record by 10 days to add to her 4 previous world records
and now 2 new pending Sydney to Auckland records.
In exciting news, Lisa has teamed up with film-makers Nathaniel C. T. Jackson and James
Blannin-Ferguson to make a feature-length documentary tracking her ambitious and
treacherous solo voyage around Antarctica. Screenings of the world premiere of Ice
Maiden will be at the Doc Edge Festival which plays in Christchurch (19-30 June), Auckland
(3-14 July), Wellington (3-14 July) and then nationwide via the virtual cinema (15-31 July).
For more information visit docedge.nz
Lisa's webpage is: www.lisablairsailstheworld.com
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