Samantha "Sam" Davies (born 23 August 1974 in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

) 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 and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

from

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

. She now lives in Kerlin ( Trégunc),

Brittany, France The region Brittany ( ; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is an Regions of France, administrative region of Metropolitan France, comprising the departments of Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Morbihan. Its capital and l ...

. She has a son, Ruben, whom she shares with her ex-partner, fellow offshore sailor Romain Attanasio.

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, unassisted 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 Vendé ...

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, 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, Côtes-du-Nord) is a French professional sailor. He competed in the 2008-2009 Vendee Globe, 2008-2009 Vendée Globe where he was evacuated from his yacht south of Australia after ...

, but Marc Guillemot 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 symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

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

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

where the damage was fully accessed and repaired and she continued outside the race and completed her circumnavigation 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

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Samantha 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 Ocean 65 class sailors Vendée Globe finishers British Vendee Globe sailors 2008 Vendee Globe sailors 2012 Vendee Globe sailors 2020 Vendee Globe sailors 2024 Vendee Globe sailors