FranzösischOn shore, Dimension-Polyant family member Lisa Blair is a wonderful team player and motivator, but on the water she prefers to go solo. The 36-year-old still has an open account with Antarctica. The Australian adventurer almost lost her life there. One more reason for the committed climate campaigner and author (“Facing Fear”) to tackle it again from January 2022.
Four years ago, a brutally broken rigg in the merciless Southern Ocean stopped Linda Blair’s first attempt to set a new non-stop record for rounding Antarctica. The Russian Fedor Konyukhov holds this record since 2008, when he managed the ice-cold round in 102 days. Blair was well on her way to breaking the record in 2017 but instead had to deal with a broken mast in terrifying storm conditions. In a pitch black night, she had to fight for her boat and her life. When seven-meter-high waves tored at the 15 meter long dismasted yacht, which already leaned dangerously to one side with a hole in its hull, Lisa had to fight like a lion. She sent a pan-pan emergency message from almost 1000 nautical miles south of Cape Town but not an SOS. She knew that helpers would need at least three days to reach the point where she was on her own. And she knew she wouldn’t survive that long in a life raft in the roaring sea. “My only option was to cut the rigg off the boat and prevent it from sinking. Otherwise, I would have been lost”, she remembers too well. Lisa Blair managed just that and made it to Cape Town with an emergency rigg. From there the unbreakable sailor later crossed the point of disaster again and finished her voyage in 183 days, 7 hours and 21 minutes. Whilst her dream of a new nonstop achievement might have bursted four years ago, her will to try again remained unbroken.
From the Sunshine Coast via the Whitsundays into the Southern Ocean
In the meantime, Lisa Blair has set a new solo record around Australia and is preparing for the next attempt to break Konyukhov’s record. The former art and education student once started her sailing career as a crew member on charter yachts. Inhaling sea air and books by famous sailors such as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Kay Cottee, Jessica Watson or Dee Caffari intensified her longings and dreams about own sailing adventures at sea. Blair recalls: “I just love their stories. They are all normal people, bu unique characters who spend their lives sailing. So I thought that maybe one day I could do that too.” During a three-months-trip in the South Pacific with friends, Lisa fell in love with blue water sailing even more deeply and decided to take on a new personal challenge: As a sailor in the Clipper Round the World Race 2011/2012, she she conquered all the world’s oceans and acquired the skills for her later solo adventures. Lisa then went on to work for Alex Thomson’s famous racing team (“Hugo Boss”). She acquired the most important skipper licenses and gained invaluable skipper experiences on former America’s Cup yachts like “Southern Cross” or “Kookaburra”.
Safe and reliable with Dimension-Polyant on board
Lisa has expanded her environmental program with trusted and new partners from research. Via her homepage lisablairsailstheworld.com anyone can send a message by clicking the button “Climate Action now!” and “Get involved” and in this way join her on upcoming adventures just like Dimension-Polyant is doing. The world market leader in the production sector of sailcloth provides the material for Lisa Blair’s sailing wardrobe: a mainsail, two headsails, a storm sail, a Code Zero and a multi-purpose spinnaker. “When I asked the sailmaker I trust on the Sunshine Coast about the best fabrics, he said that he only works with Dimension-Polyant. That impressed me. My sails are really strong,” says Lisa Blair about the partnership that is so important to her. With more than 80.000 nautical miles in her stern water, Lisa will start her second round of Antarctica in January 2022. Her forecast of the adventure that historically only a handful of brave adventurers have dared to take on: “We can do it in about 90 days.” For her, “we” includes her boat, herself and everyone who, with action or thoughts will join her on the freezing cold adventure.