36' Monk & Atkin Cape George Cutter (1974) - MINNEHAHA

SEE KIRSTEN’S LIVE PRESENTATION
SATURDAY, 2/17 @ 12PM EASTERN US (UTC -5:00)

Minnehaha is a Cape George 36, launched in 1988. She was built in the Cape George yard in Port Townsend, Washington. She is the vessel of Kirsten Neuschäfer.

This boat design was created by Cecil Lange, an esteemed boat builder. With the help of Ed Monk, a designer, the Cape George 36 is a fiberglass adaptation of the Tally Ho Major, Atkins 1930s boat.

Minnehaha is a fictional native woman from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem “The Song of Hiawatha.” She is the lover of the poem’s primary character, Hiawatha. The name Minnehaha is said to mean “laughing water’ in the poem.  It more accurately translates to “waterfall” in the Dakota Sioux language.

Kirsten has been sailing dinghies since her childhood, but sailing since 2006 as a profession. From sailing training to sailboat deliveries, she built a diverse set of skills and experience. Kirsten’s longest single-handing was a delivery from Portugal to South Africa with only a wind-vane as self-steering, on an old and maintenance-intensive 32 foot ferro-cement sloop. In 2015, she started working on Pelagic, a high latitude expedition boat, making trips to South Georgia, The Antarctic Peninsula, Patagonia and the Falklands.

Kirsten recently won the Golden Globe Race 2022, a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation. This retro race is based on the first solo circumnavigation race that took place in 1968. In order to stay true to the original circumnavigation, boats are all older designs, no bigger than 36 foot- and modern navigational technology, like GPS, is not permitted. The route for the race began in France, down the Atlantic, east-about the Southern Ocean, and back up the Atlantic to France- an approximate distance of 30,000 nautical miles and anywhere from 7 to 9 months or more at sea. This is largely a race of attrition, luck, seamanship – and adventure!