Cole Brauer, who lived in and sailed out of Boothbay Harbor for several years, will be attempting to make history in the Global Solo Challenge. She aims to be the first American woman to race around the world solo and nonstop.
On Saturday, Oct. 28, Brauer, now of Newport, R.I., will launch into the race from A Coruña, Spain.
Although she’s only 29 years old, Brauer has already made a name for herself as a formidable competitor in the world of sailing. Earlier this year, she became the first female sailor to take line honors in the single-handed first leg of the Bermuda One-Two Yacht Race, one of the most prestigious sailing races in the world.
The Solo Global Challenge is a nonstop solo race by 20 skippers around the three capes: Africa’s Cape of Good Hope; Australia’s Cape Leeuwin; and South America’s Cape Horn.
“There’s a five-day penalty for stopping or having outside physical assistance. My goal is to not stop at all,” Brauer said. “My team and I are preparing for everything that could go wrong so I can fix everything on the water.”
Food and sleep are a challenge on the journey, Brauer said. She will be eating freeze-dried food for three of the four months and will try to sleep whenever she can.
“I’ll typically sleep two hours chunks at a time and then get up to check things, run some weather routing, trim the sails, and then go back to bed and then do it all over again,” Brauer said. “I sleep when I’m tired, including during the day, check on the weather a lot and I plan accordingly and tactically.”
The record for a Class40 yacht for racing around the world solo and nonstop is 137 days. Brauer hopes to do it in 120-136 days.
Brauer began sailing in earnest in 2013 when she moved to Hawaii for college.
“From the outside, as a kid I viewed sailing as a gentlemen’s sport – a rich person’s sport,” she said. “But when I moved to Hawaii, I saw a different type of sailing that was a grassroots, rag-tag bunch of people drawn to the waves, wind, and seafaring lifestyle. A sailboat was my ticket to experience the beauty of the luscious landscape on the wild, windward side of a Hawaiian island.”
By racing around the globe solo, Brauer aims to demonstrate that women and “regular middle-class folks” can thrive in a typically wealthy male sport and occupation. As a small-sized woman, Brauer isn’t the stereotypical professional sailor. She makes up for a lack of size and brawn with meticulous preparation, ingenuity using tools and techniques that replace strength, and scrappy determination.
Brauer is undertaking the challenge on the Class40 yacht named First Light. The boat’s moniker aligns with the social message she tries to illuminate. First light is a sailing term for an initial glow on the horizon at dawn, but it’s also a term that represents raising awareness about social problems that otherwise can perpetuate in darkness.
“First light is a call for more respect in sailing, sports, and in life,” said Brauer. “Even when everything seems to be going wrong and shrouded in darkness, the sun will always rise and the rebirth starts with first light. Any individual, no matter how small they might seem in the universe and society, can achieve great things.”
Sailors have a special affinity and affection for their vessels.
“My favorite thing about First Light is that she’s tough. She handles all conditions and doesn’t give up,” said Brauer.
Although Brauer sails expensive, high-tech boats like First Light, her daily dwelling accommodations and lifestyle are down-to-earth.
“I live out of my van, so wherever my van is parked is where I’m residing, other than when I’m attempting to sail around the world!” said Brauer.
In the summer, she lives in her van in Newport, R.I., hustling for work as a professional sailor and boat captain.
“I often get asked how I make money as a sailor,” said Brauer. “You can make a good living sailing competitively, but not nearly as much for women as for men. I’m trying to change that. I plan to show that women should get paid the same as men in the same position in the race industry. If I can compete on the same level as the men in the fleet, then every woman accepted for a racing gig should have a chance to get paid as much as a man.
“When you’re solo sailing, there’s no gender,” Brauer said. “Sails have to go up and they must come down. Weather affects everyone the same.”
Boothbay Harbor planted a seafaring seed that sprouted into Brauer’s sailing passion in Hawaii.
“My parents started coming to Boothbay Harbor when I was 6,” Brauer said. “My grandparents lived in the village across from the footbridge, and we would visit a lot and spend holidays. My parents loved the coastal atmosphere, and it was like the small town on eastern Long Island, N.Y. where my dad was born and raised. He and I went to the same high school there and during the winter everything in town closes except for a pizza place – a lot like Boothbay Harbor.”
Brauer’s parents bought land in town and her father started building his dream home during breaks from his regular job in construction. It took 16 years to complete.
“I lived through all that, watching my dad never give up inspired me and instilled a work ethic. I have a strong bond with Boothbay Harbor, but I didn’t move there full time until I was out of college in 2018 and had no money and had to move back in with my parents,” Brauer said.
She started working at Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club as a sailing instructor trying to make ends meet and to make enough to move out of her parents’ house and get an apartment in town.
“I loved sailing out of Boothbay and the community took me under their wing,” Brauer said. “I sailed and coached Wednesday night J80 racing.”
Although she’s an elite international sailor that has sailed all over the globe, Brauer has spent less time sailing along Boothbay Harbor and the local coast than just enjoying the simple pleasures of residing in a seafront Lincoln County village.
“I spent a lot of time kayaking down Back River with my mom and the dogs, lobstering at 5 a.m. with my neighbor when we were kids, and motoring the family’s Boston Whaler to town and parking at the town dock to grab my favorite food – the Uno Tuto tomato sandwich and a vanilla latte from Red Cup,” Brauer said. “Then I’d go to one of the private moorings and tie up until someone came to kick me off.
“I’d sit out there in the broken down Boston Whaler and watch the marine world go around. Now I’ve realized there’s something magical when you’re sailing in from the Gulf of Maine and start to get close to Boothbay Harbor and you start to smell the land,” Brauer said. “I guess it’s the pine trees that have this amazing aroma.”
Brauer’s passion for single-handed sailing was sparked by an enlightening conversation with mentor Tim Fetsch, and further fueled by the inspiring life story of fellow female sailor Ellen McArthur.
While Brauer aspires to be the first American woman to race solo non-stop around the world, her passion for sailing is not self-limited.
“I prefer solo sailing, but I also like sailing with friends!” Brauer said.
For more information about the Global Solo Challenge, go to globalsolochallenge.com. Brauer will be documenting her experience on her Instagram account @colebraueroceanracing.
(Editor’s note: The original story incorrectly reported Brauer would be the youngest person to sail around the world. She will be the first American woman to race solo around the world nonstop. The Lincoln County News regrets the error.)
