It is common to think that the most known and brave sailors are all men. However, there are many women that nominate the sea as their place of the heart and, it all started more than 500 years ago. In this article, we celebrate some of the bravest women sailors who have sailed alone or have taken part in record sailing races.

Grace O’ Malley

Dating back to 1546, Grace O’Malley was the first woman in the world to become a sailor. She had inherited the fleet of vessels from her father and soon became the queen of the sea and the pirates of Ireland. After the British killed her husband, Grace joined the battle against Henry VIII in order to stop the invasion of Ireland. She was a woman who fought for her land and the sea.

Isabelle Autissier

Going back to our days, it is 1987 when Isabelle Autissier becomes the first woman since then to complete the circumnavigation of the globe. In 1999 she took part in the competition World Around Alone and, unfortunately, during this race, her sailing boat turns over while the wind blew at 25 knots. The Italian skipper Giovanni Soldini will save her. After this bad accident, she decides to abandon the solo races and, instead, embrace the team ones.

Denise (Dee) Caffari

It is now time to mention Dee Caffar, from the UK. This woman sailed around the globe 5 times and also got the record for doing so in both ways without any assistance or stops. Apart from being famous for these grand gestures, Dee is also known for her activism on the importance of having a clean sea without any plastics. Indeed, she led for several months the sailing boat that was meant to take away pollution and plastics from the sea during the Volvo Ocean Race.

Ida Castiglioni and Cecilia Carreri

In Italy, there are also many women that deserve more than respect in terms of sailing. One of those is Ida Castiglioni that in 1976 was the first classified among the Italians in the Ostar Race.

On the other hand, Cecilia Carreri was the first and only Italian to reach the end of the Transat Jacques Vebre in 2005.

We mentioned a few among the thousand women who dedicated most of their lives to the sail. We have to note that the way women are doing things is bringing a breath of fresh air to some activities that were seeing a decline in interest. A new perspective for the future, which increasingly needs the presence of women as protagonists.