Pip Hare: Round-the-world sailor makes land after broken mast

A sailor has reached land almost two weeks after a snapped mast ended her bid to be the first woman to finish a 24,300-mile (39,100km) race around the world for a second time.

Pip Hare, 50, who set off in her 60ft (18m) yacht Medallia on 10 November, suffered a dismast about 800 nautical miles (1,480km) south of Australia during the Vendée Globe race.

Using what was left of the mast and sail, Hare, who is based in Poole, Dorset, reached Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday.

She said she was “bitterly disappointed” by the end of her solo attempt, which followed four years of preparation and planning.

The single-handed yacht race began off the coast of France in November, and Hare had been in 15th place when the mast snapped.

She said she was “grateful” that she was “in one piece” and able to make her own way to safety.

“I might be out of the race but the grit and determination I need to compete also helped me cope with what could have been a catastrophic situation,” she said.

“And, in a funny way, I enjoyed the slower pace of the voyage to Australia. Ultimately, I’m a professional sailor because I love being out in the ocean and that’s where I’ve been, just not in quite the way I expected.”

Hare previously lived in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and learned to sail on the River Deben in Suffolk.

She set up her racing team in 2019 with a £25,000 bank loan and a crowdfunding appeal and was tipped as a top-10 finisher in the prestigious and gruelling race.

“For me, this is my version of a World Cup or the Olympics,” Hare said, before setting off.

“It’s the Vendée Globe race, it’s the toughest sailing race in the world.”

Her mast snapped more than two months into the race, forcing her to patch together a “jury rig”, allowing her to reach Australia without relying on her engine.

She said: “It didn’t feel like it at the time but I was lucky.

“When something like that happens, it can damage the boat or I could have been hurt.

“But it happened in the daylight and I was able to clear up the mess, rig a makeshift sail and limp to the nearest port.”