Yachtswoman Naomi James' Solo Round-the-World Trip

Welcome back to Naomi James who breaks the solo round-the-world sailing record by two days and who becomes the first woman to do so. Nine months at sea with only six weeks experience, Naomi James takes 272 days to complete the 27,000-mile journey sailing via Cape Horn. New Zealand-born Naomi met her sailor-husband Rob James in France and came up with the idea. Chay Blyth lent her the 53-foot yacht called the ‘Spirt of the Cutty Sark’ later renamed the Express Crusader.

Departing on 9 Sept 1977 and returning to Dartmouth on 8 June 1978, Naomi, from a landlocked sheep farm, only learnt to swim at the age of 23. In 1979 Naomi was given the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her achievement. Naomi gave up sailing in 1982 after winning the Round Britain Race with her husband Rob James. In 1983 Rob fell overboard whilst sailing to Salcombe from Plymouth and drowned, their daughter was born ten days after the tragedy. Naomi moved to America in the 1990s. In 2005, Ellen MacArthur broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe but Francis Joyon regained the record in 2008.