Dee Caffari

World-Record Setting Yachtswoman, Ocean Advocate & Motivational Speaker

World-record setting yachtswoman Dee Caffari MBE is the only woman to have sailed solo non-stop around the world – both the wrong way (against the tides and prevailing winds) and the ‘right’ way. Dee has now sailed around the world a total of six times.

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Dee Caffari's videos

What Dee Caffari's clients say

Here is some of the feedback from audiences and clients who have worked with Dee.

"Fantastic! A great story, a great speaker and a great inspiration."

Skanska ID

"Dee was fab – the audience thought she was great so thank you once again!"

Capacity Media: Annual Awards

"Dee was engaging, down to earth and warm hearted. Her presentation was extremely well received by our clients. Her description of the extraordinary challenges and her way of dealing with them was a lesson in perspective for us all."

Oracle

"It was an absolute pleasure working with Dee. There was a real buzz around her appearing at our conference, and whilst she was on stage there was a Twitter storm raging in the background. She was extremely professional arriving early on-site for her briefing and her presentation was delivered with vigour and real passion – a rarity amongst speakers. The videos impacted her achievements and left our audience with a sense of awe and empowerment. We would definitely look to book her again in the future. Dee scored a whopping 9.2 which is superb, and some of the feedback comments are below: • Excellent to have non-finance yet globally applicable topic and speaker. • Excellent! • Impressive. • Inspiring! Important and eye-opening. • Wish I could give her an 11, she was amazing."

Citywire Holdings

"A stunning success all round. Dee was amazing."

Birmingham Law Society

"The top-line stats for Dee were great – I was really pleased and she went down a treat with the audience. From the evaluation forms we received 94% rated her excellent, and the other 6% good. Dee was highlighted as the highlight of the conference by many people too. She was great and very engaging. Overall, really chuffed and a good recommendation – much appreciated."

Halton Strategic Partnership

"Everyone was just completely silent, listening with their jaws dropped: her talk was funny, interesting, relevant and the audience were captivated. Dee was quite happy to do question/answers completely unprepared and she engaged the audience in her after dinner talk."

Mace Group

"We were privileged to have Dee as the host for this year’s Skandia Team GBR British Sailing Team awards dinner, which, in such a landmark year for British sport, was a high profile occasion for all of our sailors, support team and key sponsors. She completely understood the tone we wished for from the evening, and took it all in her stride – she was entertaining, engaging and had a great rapport with our guests. I’d have no hesitation in considering Dee again for similar events."

RYA: GBR British Sailing

"I have to say – Dee was TOTALLY brilliant. She gave an engaging and inspirational talk followed by lots of questions and answers. Our feedback forms rated Dee VERY highly indeed, in fact several of the delegates who presented on the following day made several references to Dee’s “wonderful talk”. I’m VERY happy – thanks a million."

Allen Carr Easyway

"I just wanted to say that Dee went down a storm today, everyone loved her story and enjoyed meeting her. She is certainly an inspirational lady and we were lucky to have her speak to us today. Please could you thank her again and thank you for recommending her."

Invesco Perpetual

"Many thanks for the fantastic session last week at our global business council. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and everyone was completely inspired and energised by your open, honest and refreshing style and of course the critical lessons around team work, motivation and leadership that apply to everyone of us in our executive roles. A truly impressive and humbling presentation that went down a storm. Thanks again for a wonderful session."

Global Business Women Leaders Council

"Please do pass on our enormous thanks to Dee following yesterday’s conference. Her presentation was motivational, relevant and spellbinding which, along with her natural and comfortable manner, made her a huge success with everyone! Having quickly looked at the evaluation forms completed yesterday – there are words and phrases like; Wow!, Inspiring, entertaining, advocate for collaboration, highlight of the day, Inspirational and very interesting."

Opening Doors & Venues

"We were privileged to have Dee speak to a group of Telstra staff recently. Dee is a wonderful presenter and her practical can-do approach to tackling and succeeding in a world-class challenge was truly inspiring! The audience was spellbound. I don’t believe we have ever had so many people ask so many questions after a presentation, but Dee took it all in her stride and graciously answered each one with good humour and wit."

Telstra, Australia

"Inspiring, motivating, engaging, clear. Very powerful indeed. Many people approached Dee both after the conference and at the evening event to congratulate her and to say how inspired they had been. It exceeded our already high expectations. It delivered an impact that left people motivated and upbeat. The ‘wow’ factor of the conference!"

Reckitt Benckiser

"Excellent! Dee is very human and engaging. She really brought the challenges she faced on her voyage to life. All the people I spoke to were very impressed. In the plenary session one of the delegates said: “I looked at the programme and thought what in the world is a yachtswoman doing on the programme – what relevance does she have for me? I was wrong as she was really inspiring!” Ten out of ten for content, relevance, style and entertainment."

The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health

"Dee’s presentation was a wonderful and highly effective way to engage and inspire our employees about Aviva’s values of Teamwork, Integrity, Progressiveness, and Performance. Dee related her sailing adventures and communication skills to every day life and we could all learn from her experiences."

Aviva Canada Inc

"Dee’s presentation is so relevant to today’s business environment. A fantastic lady! A very down-to-earth pragmatic person who has overcome a huge personal challenge to achieve the impossible: her passion is tangible. The Q&A session was particularly good."

Royal Bank of Scotland

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Dee’s Speaking Topics

Languages:

English

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Dee Caffari's 2025 biography

Dee Caffari – ‘We can do more than we think we can. We just have to dare to dream.’

A former teacher, British yachtswoman Dee Caffari sailed into the world record book when she became the first and only woman to circumnavigate the world solo the ‘wrong’ way in 2006. Not one to stay in her comfort zone, Dee then sailed single-handed, non-stop around the world in the other direction by competing in a dramatic Vendée Globe (2008/09) – it is not called ‘The Everest of the Seas’ for nothing. On completing the dual-handed Barcelona World Race in 2011, Dee became the only woman to have sailed non-stop around the world on three occasions.

Dee has now sailed around the planet six times and tailors her insightful talks for clients drawing on her experiences of leading teams in competitive, tough environments as well as her record-setting solo voyages. Dee retains a number of world-firsts and speed sailing records.

Dee continues to challenge herself (and historical records). Dee’s current campaign is as co-skipper of The Famous Project – an all-woman crew who will contest the Jules Verne Trophy in 2025. No woman has so far been part of any crew to conquer the legendary prize for the fastest time around the planet.

An inspiring skipper, a passionate Ocean Advocate, Dee is keen to nurture diversity and inclusion. Dee is Chair of the World Sailing Trust, a global charity focused on safeguarding our planet’s waters and the future of the sport of sailing.

Dee has lead diverse, international teams in challenging environments. As skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race 17/18. Dee lead an international youth team with a 50-50 male-female split in the Volvo Ocean Race (17/18). As skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic, Dee’s promoted the United Nations Environment’s Clean Seas campaign to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans and inspire people to take action in their day-to-day lives. Alongside the sustainability focus, the messages around gender inclusivity and inspiring the next generation were key throughout the campaign.

Dee has proven herself to be a yachtswoman of the highest calibre and many are amazed to learn that she only began her sailing career in 2000.

Following her first world record, Dee was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours list and she became an Honorary Commander in the British Royal Navy in recognition of her service to the sea, Britain’s maritime heritage and her work for charity.

Speaking

Without doubt, one of Britain’s most inspirational women, Dee is an acclaimed international speaker. She tells her highly motivational story with great humour and insight.

Dee tailors each presentation drawing on her solo and team challenges in extreme ocean environments. A natural team leader, Dee engages audiences with her lessons hard won and her understanding of leadership, good communications, risk, high performance, resilience, diversity, inclusion and she is driven to inspire the next generation.

Feedback consistently shows that clients across all sectors appreciate Dee’s engaging style and authenticity of her messages in her presentations (whether virtual or in person). Dee is sought after as a keynote speaker, an entertaining and motivating after dinner speaker as well as a host for corporate awards at international events.