Samantha "Sam" Davies (born 23 August 1974 in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

) is an English yachtswoman.

Personal life

Davies went to school at Portsmouth High School and received a degree in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

from

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. Th ...

. She now lives in Kerlin ( Trégunc), Brittany, France with fellow offshore sailor Romain Attanasio who she is engaged to and with whom she has a son Ruben.

Biography

Samantha Davies came into the limelight with her 2008-2009 single-handed world circumnavigation in the

Vendée Globe --> The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendée, in France ...

race, where she placed fourth. She was the third to cross the finish line, but owed a time allowance of 50 Hr to competitor

Marc Guillemot Marc Guillemot is a French professional offshore sailor born on 25 June 1959 in Quimper. In 2009 he was awarded knight of the order of merit. Career highlights References External links Official Facebook Page Official Website Page 19 ...

, who crossed the line 48:40' after her. The time allowance was applied following both competitors' diversion to assist injured skipper

Yann Eliès Yann Eliès (born 31 January 1974 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor The Côtes-d'Armor (, ; ; br, Aodoù-an-Arvor, ), formerly known as Côtes-du-Nord ( br, Aodoù-an-Hanternoz, link=no, ), are a department in the north of Brittany, in northwes ...

, but

benefited from a larger handicap because of his forward position in the race. In 2009 she was awarded Yachtsman of the year by the yachting journalist association During the

2020-2021 Vendee Globe The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such ...

she was forced to retire on day 26 with keel damage following collision with unidentified floating object she sailed to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

where the damage was fully accessed and repaired and she continued outside the race and arrived on here circumnavigation completing it in a time of 109d 23h 40m. File:60 feet Roxy.jpg, Roxy - 2008-2009 Vendée Globe File:Savéol, ex-Sill-Veolia.JPG, ''Savéol''- 2012-2013 Vendée Globe File:Samantha Davies VG2012 (2).jpg, ''Savéol''- 2012-2013 Vendée Globe File:Vendée Globe 2012-2013 Samantha Davies Savéol.jpg, ''Savéol''- 2012-2013 Vendée Globe File:Route du Rhum 2014 - Initiatives-Cœur.JPG, Initiatives-Cœur File:Sam Davies, the skipper... A capitã -TeamSCA -volvooceanrace -itajai -sailing (16886665999).jpg, Volvo Ocean Race

Record of achievement

References

External links

* * * * 1974 births English sailors English female sailors (sport) Living people Sportspeople from Portsmouth Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People educated at Portsmouth High School (Southsea) Female explorers English explorers Volvo Ocean Race sailors IMOCA 60 class sailors Volvo 65 class sailors Vendée Globe finishers British Vendee Globe sailors 2008 Vendee Globe sailors 2012 Vendee Globe sailors 2020 Vendee Globe sailors {{UK-yachtracing-bio-stub