Kay Cottee

Kay Cottee Template:Post-nominals (née McLaren, born 25 January 1954) is an Australian sailor, who was the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world. She performed this feat in 1988 in her Template:Convert yacht Blackmores First Lady, taking 189 days.

Personal life

Born Kay McLaren, the youngest of four daughters,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in Sydney on 25 January 1954, Cottee grew up in the southern Sydney suburb of Sans Souci.<ref name="Kay Cottee AO">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> She was born into a yachting family and was taken sailing for the first time when only a few weeks old.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For secondary schooling, she attended Moorefield Girls High School in Kogarah, New South Wales.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Over the next nine years Cottee moved to Pittwater where she built a yacht and established a bareboat charter business.<ref name="Kay Cottee AO"/>

Cottee now lives in Yamba on the far NSW north coast with television producer husband Peter Sutton.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is an international motivational speaker, boat builder,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> writer, painter and sculptor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Solo circumnavigation

File:"Blackmore's First Lady" (7854122622).jpg

The yacht Blackmores First Lady

On 5 June 1988 at age 34, Cottee became the first woman to sail round the world alone non-stop and unassisted when she sailed through the heads of Sydney harbour. She was greeted by tens of thousands of well-wishers. Cottee had left the harbour 189 days earlier, on 29 November 1987.<ref name=Eugene>Template:Cite news</ref>

The historic voyage on her 37 ft yacht Blackmores First Lady<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was also the fastest sailing trip around the world by a woman<ref name=Eugene /> and the first solo, non-stop and unassisted voyage around the world by a woman.<ref name=Ovations>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the Southern Ocean, Cottee's boat was knocked down continuously and she was washed overboard.<ref name=btcycle>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Dinkum Aussies">Template:Cite web</ref> When Cottee rounded Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, she celebrated with a lunch of crab, mayonnaise and self baked bread, and a bottle of Grange, a prestigious Australian wine.<ref name="Dinkum Aussies" />

Cottee and her major sponsor Blackmores Limited used the voyage to raise over $1M for the Rev. Ted Noffs' Life Education Program. Cottee also undertook an 18-month national schools tour, speaking to over 40,000 senior high school students, imparting the message you can achieve your dreams if you work steadily towards them.

Yacht building

In 2002 Cottee designed and built the first Kay Cottee 56,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a fibreglass/foam sandwich construction yacht designed as a bluewater cruiser.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> With husband Peter Sutton, Cottee set up a boat building business near Yamba on the north coast of NSW in order to produce the yachts,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> each one which would take an anticipated 8 months to build.<ref name=":0" />

Awards

Since her round the world trip, Kay Cottee has received numerous accolades.

• In 1988, Cottee received the Australian of the Year Award.<ref name="Dinkum Aussies" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Australian of the Year – 1988 Template:Webarchive</ref>
• In January 1989, Cottee was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Inductee of the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Cottee is also the first Australian recipient of the Cutty Sark Medal presented by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Cottee was also made a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary and an International Honorary Zontion by Zonta International
• Inaugural inductee of the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame in 2017<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other achievements

Australian National Maritime Museum

In 1991, Cottee joined the advisory board of the Australian National Maritime Museum.<ref name=Crawford>Template:Cite news</ref> She was chair of the museum from 1995 until 2001.<ref name=Routledge /><ref name=btcycle /> In 2000, Blackmores First Lady, was acquired by the museum and placed on permanent display.<ref name=Crawford/>

Publications

Cottee is the author of two books. Her first book, First Lady, was published by Macmillan in 1989. Her second book, All at Sea on Land, was published by Pan Macmillan in 1998, about her life in the ten years since the voyage.

Further reading

• Template:Cite book