Neal Petersen
South African-born Neal Petersen is a world-class professional solo racing yachtsman, global investor, award-winning author of Journey of a Hope Merchant, and the subject of a PBS documentary. Petersen completed a single-handed yacht race around the world — 27,000 miles, nine months at sea — alone and in the smallest yacht, which he designed and built himself. "He became the first black sailor to race solo around the world."[1]
Books
To date he has published two books: No Barriers was published in 1994. His second book, Journey of a Hope Merchant: From Apartheid to the Elite World of Solo Yacht Racing, was published in 2004. Both books deal with various aspects of his yachting career, with No Barriers concentrating on his first journey from South Africa to Europe. Journey of a Hope Merchant won the 2005 National Outdoor Book Award (History/Biography category) Petersen was born physically disabled and impoverished in apartheid-era South Africa, but was introduced to healing and equality in the waters surrounding Cape Town. Journey of a Hope Merchant recounts the epic journey that took this misfit kid from a racially segregated, working-class neighborhood to the prestigious world of solo yacht racing. His gripping account of the 1998-99 "Around Alone" race, made famous by the mid-ocean rescue of the French sailor Isabelle Autissier, may become a classic of nautical writing.
Written with a freshness and style that reflect his unstoppable optimism, the story of Petersen's compelling journey is proof that the harshest lessons learned at sea apply to all aspects of life and that even the wildest dreams are attainable.
Petersen completed the "Around Alone" single-handed yacht race around the world, 27,000 miles, nine months at sea alone, in a yacht he designed and built himself.
References
- ↑ Lew Freedman, "Solo sailor breaks all barriers", Chicago Tribune, 3 April 2005.