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Wendy Tuck didn’t start sailing until she was in her mid-20s but has now made history

SHE’S the sailor from Mount Druitt who had to travel hours by foot and train as a teenager just to get a glimpse of the water.

Wendy Tuck has become the first female skipper to win a round-the-world yacht race.
Wendy Tuck has become the first female skipper to win a round-the-world yacht race.

SHE’S the sailor from Mount Druitt who had to travel hours by foot and train as a teenager just to get a glimpse of the water.

The Sydney skipper who only started sailing in her mid-20s but who has now conquered six of the seven seas to write her name into sailing history.

It’s no wonder Wendy Tuck is having a hard time believing she is the first woman to win a round the world race.

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When 11-time Sydney to Hobart veteran Tuck finally realised she had won the Clipper Race in the UK her first urge was to laugh.

“Who would have though a girl from Mount Druit could do this?” said Tuck, 52, in a call to the Sunday Telegraph.

“Look where I’ve come from. I didn’t even sail until I was in my 20s.

“I guess this shows you really can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

Wendy Tuck has become the first female skipper to win a round-the-world yacht race.
Wendy Tuck has become the first female skipper to win a round-the-world yacht race.

Tuck said despite her upbringing far from the water, she has always had a natural affinity with the ocean.

“My parent bought a housing commission house at Mount Druitt and it would take me two hours on a bus and then train to go surfing and then come home again. But I’ve always just loved the ocean,” said Tuck, one of 11 professional skippers in the 11-month round the world race.

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Late on Friday night Tuck completed the final leg of the 40,000 nautical mile Clipper Race across six oceans when she steered the 70-foot yacht Sanya Serenity Coast into Liverpool at the end of the final 900nm dash from Londonderry.

Her seventh placing in the leg was enough to claim the overall win ahead of a quick sprint race yesterday.

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Claiming second overall was 25-year-old English skipper Nikki Henderson, the youngest ever skipper in the race which has now also seen its first female one-two overall result.

“She’s a superstar. She’s just had her 25th birthday. What an achievement,” said Tuck of her young rival.

Wendy Tuck skippered the yacht Sanya Serenity Coast to victory in the round-the-world Clipper Race.
Wendy Tuck skippered the yacht Sanya Serenity Coast to victory in the round-the-world Clipper Race.

Tuck, a professional skipper who has lead an ever-changing team of mostly novice sailors in the race, produced six podium finishes en-route to her overall win in a race which visited numerous lifts including

Cape Town, Fremantle, Sydney, Hobart, Sanya, Qingdao, Seattle, Panama, New York and Derry-Londonderry.

Tuck has also become the first Australian skipper to complete two circumnavigations with the Clipper fleet.

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“There’s never been a race, a round the world race, where you’ve had the two leading skipper both be women. This is a first. And when you look at what they are racing against, the experience of the other Clipper Race skippers, you realise that this is really very special,” said race founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo and non-stop around the world.

“The impact of the success of both Wendy and Nikki cannot be underestimated. If this gets even one more girl to start sailing and dreaming big, then I’ll consider everything we have done over the last eleven months a huge success.”

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/more-sports/wendy-tuck-didnt-start-sailing-until-she-was-in-her-mid20s-but-has-now-made-history/news-story/8a5bf321b43d3c1198efabace96c82b3