RQYS Sailor Stacey Jackson sails around the world with an all-female crew in hopes of securing the esteemed Jules Verne Trophy

Sailing around the world is no small feat! In 1872, French author Jules Verne published a novel entitled Around the World in Eighty Days. In reference to this literary masterpiece, the Jules Verne Trophy is awarded to the sailors who take on a circumnavigation of the world and complete it in the fastest recorded time.

The idea came to fruition in 1985 when a young French sailor by the name of Yves Le Cornec invented the 80-day sailing venture. The intention of the venture was to complete the circumnavigation in under 80 days, as the novel suggests and this was first achieved in 1993 by French skipper, Bruno Peyron. He boarded the Explorer and circumnavigated the world in 79 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 56 seconds.

There have been many attempts since then to beat the record, with the Trophy being awarded 9 times. The most recent recipient, France’s Francis Joyon, completed the journey in 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds with Trimaran IDEC Sport in 2017. That very same yacht is back out in the water attempting to beat its own record, but things are a little different this time around.

Skippered by Alexia Barrier of France, the all-female crew, going by Famous Project CIC, has once again brought IDEC Sport out to compete in the Jules Verne Trophy.  Having set sail on November 29^th from Brest, France, the women-only crew, which includes RQYS’ own Stacey Jackson, is a less than a week into their voyage and are currently in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Morocco.

The eight women making up the Famous Project CIC have travelled from all over the world to form this dream team. Joining Stacey and Alexia are Dee Caffari and Deborah Blair from Great Britain, Annemieke Bes from the Netherlands, Rebecca Gmuer from Switzerland, Molly Lapointe from the USA and Tamara Xiquita Echegoyen from Spain.

Stacey’s achievements in the sailing world are nothing short of incredible. Stacey has been a RQYS Member since 2016 and took on her first Sydney to Hobart at the age of just 18.  She has since raced in nearly 20 Sydney to Hobarts, most notably, skippering an all-female team to second Overall in the 2018 race. She was also part of one of the only all-female teams to take on the Volvo Ocean Yacht Race in 2014-15.

RQYS is proud to follow Stacey’s journey in this new adventure and will keep you updated with the team’s progress toward a new world record.

You can hear from Stacey on her Instagram (@staceyjackson26) and you can also follow the live tracker here: https://live.garmin.com/TFPCIC.

RQYS wishes Stacey, and the whole crew aboard IDEC Sport, the very best of luck!

Do you have an interesting story to share? Contact Abigail O’Sullivan at digitalmarketing@rqys.com.au and say hello!