Sexagenarian Grandmother of three, Eileen Skelly is causing quite a stir in the media, with a full page spread in the Daily Telegraph and expected coverage on national radio and TV in the coming days and weeks. Her transatlantic race on Liverpool 08 in the Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race is attracting something of a cult following with the Race Press Office inundated with messages of interest and well-wishes cheering on the inspirational Eileen.

That Eileen is turning in to such a media starlet is no surprise: an ambitious and adventurous woman with bags of energy and a love for life, she does not see herself resting after this epic adventure. With dreams of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and back-packing across New Zealand her star is certainly on the rise.

- Russ Jefferys

Following Text taken from Daily Telegraph article, written by Andrew Baker.

GRANDMA CRASHING THE OCEAN WAVES

Think of British ocean racing heroines and the name Ellen MacArthur springs immediately to mind. But the Dame should not have a monopoly in the matter of adventure on the high seas. A little footnote in our nation’s maritime history should be set aside for Eileen Skelly, who may not be challenging MacArthur’s solo circumnavigation record but is certainly the first sexagenarian grandmother from Liverpool to take part in an international round-the-world yacht race. Skelly, 61, yesterday crossed the equator aboard the vessel named after her home city, challenging for the lead in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. She and her 17 fellow crew members won the first leg from Liverpool to Cascais, Portugal, and are hoping to repeat the feat on the second leg to Salvador, the Brazilian city well known to MacArthur as the destination port of assorted transatlantic contests.

The contrast between the driven dame and the garrulous grandma could hardly be more extreme. MacArthur was barely out of a boat from her early childhood, while Skelly’s only previous water-based experience prior to training for the Clipper race was a couple of hours in a pedalo and occasional ferry trips across the Mersey. “I just entered a competition,” Skelly recalled by satellite phone from mid-Atlantic yesterday. “I’d seen pictures on television of people dancing on the beach in Brazil and I thought it would be a nice place to visit. I thought I was applying for a kind of cruise, I suppose, and I had visions of dining at the captain’s table and that sort of thing.”

The clipper race series was established by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in 1995, and the 2005-2006 race set out from Liverpool on Sept 18. The fleet is scheduled to return to the Merseyside port next July, having sailed around the world in seven legs. Ten vessels are competing, representing cities as diverse as Singapore, Glasgow, Durban and Qingdao, which will host the sailing events at the 2008 Olympics in China. The boats carry a crew of 17 amateurs and a professional skipper, with roughly half the participants being experienced sailors and half, like Skelly, total novices. But, regardless of experience, all are expected to play a full part.

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