THE LARGEST SAILING RACE IN THE WORLD
Trieste, 1 - 12 October 2025
Trieste, 1 - 12 October 2025
Barcolana - News01.09.21
#WomenInSailing - Dee Caffari
English, a PE teacher, she has sailed around the world six times and she is the sailor who composed the mixed crew for the round-the-world “Turn the tide on plastic”.
“It isn’t important to be the first woman to do something, what’s important is to keep doing it”.
“It isn’t important to be the first woman to do something, what’s important is to keep doing it”.
Dee Caffari is, formally, a PE teacher. Or rather she was, until 2004, when she decided to change profession: “Above all – she recounts – the aim was to speak to more and more people and communicate with them via concrete actions, actions that focus their attention on two topics: the safeguarding of the sea and women’s role”.
“At that time – says Dee Caffari – my vision was certainly not as clear: I wanted to set off on a sailing boat, navigate and do something unique. It was, first of all, a personal challenge, one of resistance and of mental and physical strength, as though I had to earn respect before being able to tackle these major issues”.
So, in 2006, Dee Caffari set off on a solo tour round-the-world with no stops and “in the wrong direction”; in other words in the harshest conditions, always against the wind and the currents. It is the equivalent of Everest for sailors, and she is the first woman in the world to have done it. “I wanted to be the first woman to win this challenge, but for me it was, above all, a challenge with myself, which I won and repeated several times”.
After the first, she sailed around the world another six times, both solo and in a crew. Most notably, 2017 saw the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race project “Turn the tide on plastic”, for which Dee Caffari created a mixed crew to sail round-the-world with. “It was an incredible experience, I put together a team composed of both men and women, knowing that they would have to collaborate and live together for over a year, face great difficulties at sea and a very complex navigation, in the most remote latitudes. It was an exceptional and unique experience, a symbol for the future of sailing”.
“At that time – says Dee Caffari – my vision was certainly not as clear: I wanted to set off on a sailing boat, navigate and do something unique. It was, first of all, a personal challenge, one of resistance and of mental and physical strength, as though I had to earn respect before being able to tackle these major issues”.
So, in 2006, Dee Caffari set off on a solo tour round-the-world with no stops and “in the wrong direction”; in other words in the harshest conditions, always against the wind and the currents. It is the equivalent of Everest for sailors, and she is the first woman in the world to have done it. “I wanted to be the first woman to win this challenge, but for me it was, above all, a challenge with myself, which I won and repeated several times”.
After the first, she sailed around the world another six times, both solo and in a crew. Most notably, 2017 saw the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race project “Turn the tide on plastic”, for which Dee Caffari created a mixed crew to sail round-the-world with. “It was an incredible experience, I put together a team composed of both men and women, knowing that they would have to collaborate and live together for over a year, face great difficulties at sea and a very complex navigation, in the most remote latitudes. It was an exceptional and unique experience, a symbol for the future of sailing”.
