Pioneering Sip & Puff Sailor Crosses Atlantic in World First

16th December 2020

Natasha Lambert at the start of this year’s transatlantic ARC Credit: Miss isle/Facebook

A young woman with cerebral palsy has become the first person to cross the Atlantic by ‘sip and puff’ sailing.

Natasha Lambert — who three years ago sailed into Dun Laoghaire to complete a crossing of the Irish Sea by the same means — controls the helm and sails of her vessel with a straw.

As Yachting Monthly reports, Natasha’s father Gary designed the system that drives her Nautitech Open 46, named Blown Away — which also happens to be the largest vessel ever adapted for sip and puff sailing.

Twenty-three-year-old Natasha lives with quadriplegic athetoid cerebral palsy but hasn’t let it stop her attempting sailing feats that would be a challenge for even the most experienced able-bodies sailors.

And her latest achievement was skippering Blown Away with her family from Gran Canaria to the Caribbean as part of the 2020 ARC rally.

Yachting Monthly has more on the story HERE.

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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