“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Charming Isabelle Takes the Cape by Storm in the Wake of Her Triumph

By Richard Crockett

These “blasts from the past” remind one of great events and people in our sport, today being Isabelle Autissier. Remember her?

Well way back in 1994 she won the first leg of the BOC Singlehanded race around the world into Cape Town.

This is how Dale Granger introduced her:

“As “Isabelle mania” engulfs Cape Town, it’s not difficult to see why the 38-year-old Isabelle Autissier, the first-leg winner of the BOC Challenge round-the-world race, has retained the same sponsors throughout her eight years as a racing yachtswoman.

The charming Autissier has swept the Mother City off its feet. Wherever she went at the Waterfront on Sunday, French television crews and local media trailed her as hundreds of people flocked to see her radical 60-foot racing yacht, ‘Ecureuil Poitou Charentes 2′.”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE:  1994 10 26 – 812 – OCR